September 8, 2022 · 0 Comments
The Ontario Baseball (OBA) championships got underway at sites and towns across Ontario at the end of August and during the Labour Day weekend.
In the Select team division, there were nine tournaments held on August 19 to 21.
The Rep Division featured a total of 54 tournaments with most played over the long weekend.
Teams came from U8 right up to U22, as well as senior divisions.
Games took place at diamonds at various locations and were hosted by baseball associations in different centres.
Teams played in divisions from “D” up to AAA, and the amount of skill and talent was evident as they battled it out for a provincial title.
All tournaments were played in a double knock-out format meaning that if a team loses two games, they are done.
It also means there is only one undefeated team that can make it to the tournament championships game.
The Orangeville and Headwaters Minor Baseball Association hosted the U9 AA tournament in Orangeville on September 2 to 4. They used three diamonds in town as well as a diamond in a neighbouring town to get all the games in. There were 16 teams involved in the Orangeville tournament.
At this age, a pitching machine is used to provide a decent pitch almost every time. This speeds up the game.
“They get five hittable pitches, so it’s the umpire’s discretion if the pitch could be hit,” said Orangeville and Headwaters Baseball Association president Jesse Edmunds explained. “We have 16 teams so there’s somewhere between 150 to 180 kids in the tournament and their families. This event is drawing in around 1,000 people into town for the weekends. The tournament is a double knock-out elimination. If you lose two games, you go home. When you get to the final game, generally you’ll have one undefeated team and a team that’s lost one game. If you get to the final, and the team that’s lost one game beats the team that is undefeated, they have to beat them again to win. We have some really good teams here.”
The tournament wraps up minor baseball for the season.
By Brian Lockhart