The 8U Leamington Lakers took a 5-1 record into the final game of the Ontario Baseball Association (OBA) 8U ‘B’ championships on Sunday and emerged as the provincial champs.
The host team kicked off the 15-team double knockout tournament with a decisive 10-0 shutout of Lakeshore in game one on Thursday, August 27 and followed that with a 17-3 victory over Stratford Friday. Later Friday, they beat the St. Thomas Cardinals 13-5 to carry a perfect 3-0 record into Saturday.
On Saturday morning the locals ran into an offensive juggernaut in the Woodtock Wranglers, who beat them 23-18, but bounced back with an 18-6 defeat of neighbours Kingsville Knights later in the day to sit at 4-1 going into Sunday.
That Leamington win knocked Kingsville out of the tournament. The Knights finished with a 3-2 record after wins over Georgina, Waterdown and Stratford and an additional loss to Chatham.
With three teams remaining in the tournament, Leamington watched intently as the undefeated Woodstock team built an 11-6 lead over St. Thomas early in the semi-final, only to falter in later innings and lose 15-13 to the Cardinals.
That set up a showdown between Leamington and Woodstock to determine who would advance to the final against St. Thomas.
The Lakers didn’t disappoint as they broke a 6-6 tie in the top of the seventh on a Nash O’Neil two-run double. O’Neil then scampered home on a Gannon Grubb single to make the score 9-6, then the Lakers’ defense went to work in the bottom half of the inning to send Woodstock packing.
In the final game — despite a mid-game downpour — the Lakers stayed ahead of the Cardinals from the first inning on and wrapped it up with a barrage of runs in the sixth to polish off a 15-5 win and the first Ontario title for the 8U squad. A large crowd of spectators erupted in applause when the final out was made.
