The Leamington Lakers 13U team won five-of-six games on the July 18-20 weekend at London and came home with the championship of the London Talons annual tournament.
The Lakers stormed out of the gate on Friday with a 10-0 shutout of the host Talons team on the strength of shutout pitching by Asher Grossi and Quinn Chevalier.
In game two, the Lakers faced the Soo Black Sox and won a close one by a score of 7-6. Brady George pitched a complete game for the locals, which was highlighted by a grand slam off the bat of Evan Ketler. Zander Cook’s walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh brought the crowd to its feet and won it for the Lakers.
Game three didn’t go the Lakers’ way, despite a well-pitched game by Brody Van Roie. They lost 9-5 to the Quinte Royals. The loss put the Lakers in second place in their bracket and set up a Sunday morning game against cross-county rivals LaSalle Gold.
That quarter-final matchup with LaSalle featured a walk-off single by Alex Antonios as the Lakers won 7-6 once again. Griffin Horne got the win on the mound.
The semi-final game brought the Lakers up against Simcoe, where Chevalier started on the mound and Brody Church finished up. Carter Demant hit a key bases-clearing triple in the late stages to seal the 11-7 victory.
The championship game pitted the Lakers against Stratford in a game for all the marbles, which the Lakers won 16-10.
Grossi got the start and got help from Antonios, who finished up against a strong-hitting Stratford squad. The offense was led by Ketler, Christian Rutgers, Church and Cook combining for 13 of the Lakers 16 runs with Chevalier and Horne combining for seven RBIs in the game.
