Ontario golden at Baseball Canada Cup and 21U Women’s Championship
Two more Baseball Canada champions were crowned this past week with Ontario winning the gold medal at the 21U Women’s Championship and also capturing the gold at the Baseball Canada Cup. Photo: Baseball Canada
August 14, 2023
Baseball Canada
Ottawa, Ont. – Two more Baseball Canada champions were crowned this past week with Ontario winning the gold medal at the 21U Women’s Championship and also capturing the gold at the Baseball Canada Cup.
Baseball Canada Cup
In Regina, the gold medal game saw Team Ontario defeat British Columbia 11-8 in a close back-and-forth contest.
BC got off to a hot start, scoring five in the top of the first capped by a Riley Symeskwak RBI single. Ontario would answer back with three runs of their own in the bottom half sparked by a Brayden Ricketts’ RBI triple.
Ontario would put up another four runs in the second, and four more late in the sixth to secure the championship.
Dante Smith and Quinn Carson join Ricketts with multi-RBI performances to power team Ontario over BC.
Aiden Taggart closed out the actions for Team Ontario, striking out a pair in a perfect one-two-three top of the seventh.
Saskatchewan walked off Québec in the bottom of the seventh in the bronze medal game to reach podium with a 1-0 victory.
Team Sask scored the only run of the game after two-out rally capped by a B. Bast line drive RBI single to win the game.
Reese Brons and Jeremy Dionne went toe to toe on the mound both with complete game efforts for their clubs.
Brons permitted only one hit and issued a pair of walks in a 10-strikeout complete game shutout. On the other side, Dionne kept Saskatchewan off the board for most of the game despite giving up 10 hits and only picking up a pair of strikeouts.
21U Women’s Championship
In St. John’s, the gold medal game featured a nail-biting showdown between Ontario and Québec with Team Ontario coming out on top in a thrilling 6-3 finish.
Team Québec got off to a hot start, scoring three runs in the second inning sparked by a Charlie Marcotte two-RBI single.
Ontario tied the game in the top of the fifth with a clutch Mayuka Nakasaka double. She would drive in four of the six Ontario runs in the game, and also pick up the win on the mound.
Maika Lavallee took the loss for Quebec as the left-hander went two innings and allowed three runs on three hits, while striking out two.
In the bronze medal game, Nova Scotia came back late to win a 12-10 slugfest matchup against BC.
Both pitching staffs had their hands full, as BC scored 10 runs on 14 hits while Nova Scotia crossed the plate 13 times on nine hits.
A huge seven-run bottom of the sixth inning powered Nova Scotia to the victory. Sophie Thimot smashed the go-ahead RBI single to complete the comeback.
The game had an exciting finish as BC threatened in the top of the seventh with a couple of runners on and the winning run at the plate before Thimot induced a ground ball to second base that ended the game.