Black Sox eliminated from OBA tournament (updated with photos)

SARNIA, ON – It was a long ride home for the Cambrian Mazda Black Sox on Sunday afternoon.

The Black Sox dropped a pair of games on Saturday at the Ontario Baseball Association Midget ‘AA’ Championships in Sarnia, eliminating them from the tournament. The locals dropped a 3-1 decision at the hands of the Mississauga Majors on Saturday morning before losing to the Brockville Bunnies 9-1 in their afternoon contest.

The losses came on the heels of an opening-day win over Brantford.

“The unfortunate part is we beat ourselves and it put an end to our season,” said Black Sox coach Ryan Johns of Saturday’s losses. “We worked hard all season and we have a good team and it was unfortunate it came down to yesterday and us beating ourselves.”

Against Mississauga, the Black Sox had a pair of opportunities to cash in runs, including having the bases loaded with just one out in the second inning. The locals came away with just one run. In the seventh, the Black Sox found themselves with runners on first and second and just one out. Joey Lesage grounded into a double play to end the game. As a team, the Black Sox struggled at the plate, combining for nine strikeouts in the loss. Mississauga scored a pair of first inning runs in the win.

Kyle Sayers picked up the loss against Mississauga. Kyle Diotte had a pair of singles.

Against Brockville, the Black Sox again struggled at the plate and also struggled defensively. The usually strong defensive club fell behind 4-0 after just one inning and was down 7-0 through four innings, en route to the 9-1 loss. J.J Bergamin took the loss.

Jacob Yukich had a pair of hits in the loss.

“We didn’t play as strong defensively as we normally could and we had a few key errors which gave up a few runs,” said Johns. Unfortunately it took us out of the ball games and didn’t give us an opportunity to get back in the ball games when we had an opportunity. In the second game we made a few throwing errors that cost us some runs.”

The semi-finals were slated to get underway on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. though rainfall throughout the night and into the morning pushed back plans. The semi-finals were rescheduled for noon. The first semi-final saw host Sarnia face Brockville while the second semi-final would see Peterborough take on Vaughan.

Though their season ended on a sour note, Johns commented on how pleased he was with the season as a whole.

“Overall it was a good year,” Johns noted. “We were fortunate enough to repeat as Great Lakes Baseball League champions. We had a great nucleus of young players come up this year, which was an added bonus.

“I was fortunate enough to work with a great coaching staff (along with Mike Lebel and Joe Yardanoff),” Johns added as the trio worked alongside manager Dave Marasco to keep the team running strong. “That helped all the young players develop as they’re moving up. Joe, Mike and I have worked together for quite a few years and we all run under the same system. If one of us isn’t able to make it, the other ones are able to pick up right where we left off. There’s confidence in all three of us, regardless if one person’s there or not. Any decision that’s made will be the same regardless of if three of us are there or one of us is there.”