August 15, 2024

The Toronto Baseball Association Girls -- TBA Girls -- jumped out to an early lead in the gold medal game at the Ontario Summer Games and then saw their opponents from York Simcoe Baseball Association crawl back almost all the way.

With the tying run on third and the potential winning run for YSBA on second in the bottom of the seventh inning, relief pitcher Ava Zaccaria got a strike out and induced a fly out to secure the gold medal with a 13-12 victory.

TBA went undefeated in five games under coach Ed Keenan on their way to the medal.

A total of 2,500 athletes aged 12-18 competed in 18 sports disciplines in London, Ont. between Aug. 1-4. Girls baseball was added to the games for the first time since 2004, with six teams competing in the division, leading up to the final at historic Labatt Memorial Field. The Toronto team was made up of 15 and 16-year old girls from Annette, Toronto Playgrounds and Royal York baseball associations.

In the Gold medal game, TBA went ahead12-2 lead by the middle of the fifth inning, on the strength of starting pitcher Victoria Curro's nine-strikeouts over four innings, and strong hitting up and down the lineup including two hits, two RBIs and three runs scored from Sarah Smoljan.  

In the first game of the tournament, two days earlier, Curro threw 3 1/3 hitless innings and Maya Grossinger went 3-for-4 with a double in a 12-3 victory over the Foresters Ontario development program team.

In the next game - a preview of the eventual final - Grossinger pitched a complete game and went 3-for-3, knocking in three runs as TBA romped to a 21-3 victory.

Then Toronto continued its dominance with a 21-1 win over the Lakers Ontario development program team. 

In the semi-final game against the Foresters, Bach hit a three-run homer in the second (and drove in five runs in the game) while relief pitcher Alessia Iannarella shut down a final-inning comeback attempt by striking out two out of three batters she faced as TBA won 20-13.

Over the five games, Curro hit .700 with an .857 on-base percentage, driving three of her seven hits for extra bases, while Ava Menezes and Bach led the team with eight hits in 13 at-bats each.  

FINAL MEDALS

GOLD: Toronto Baseball Association

SILVER: York Simcoe Baseball Association

BRONZE: Foresters Ontario Development Team