“A Blast”: Mosquito A Report

The Mosquito A’s had an excellent tournament in Kelowna over the weekend showing that every time they step on to the field they are becoming more and more of a force to reckon with in the Single A division.

In Kelowna, our boys were in a division that combined Single A’s / Double A’s / and a Tier 2 Triple A Team as well, and they still exerted themselves to a strong Bronze medal win, missing the Gold medal game by one run and an extremely controversial umpire decision that ended the game.

The single A’s lost only one game in their round robin and that was to the Tier 2 AAA team from Tsawassen (which was avenged in the Bronze medal game).

Our boys started off with a powerful first game against Penticton winning 9-3. The game was highlighted by an excellent pitching performance by Dakota Janzen going four and a half innings practically flawless and winning the MVP honors for the game.

Our boys also doubled up on a very strong Victoria team that was expected to clean up in the tourney. The game was a defensive juggernaut that our boys won 6-3. The game was highlighted by excellent pitching from Aiden Koetsier, Jack Neill and Cardel Dick;  two brilliant and extremely timely running catches in the outfield by Jared Nivins and an infield home run by Dakota Janzen. Jared Nivins’ efforts were recognized for MVP honors in the game.

The one loss in the round robin was to the giant sized Tier 2 AAA’s from Tsawassen. Tsawassen was very strong on their bats and we were not quite ready for them until we met them later in the Bronze medal game of the tourney and exacted some well-earned revenge.

However, the highlight in this game (which continued into the bronze medal game) was an excellent pitching performance by Nick Rabinovitch who managed to shut them down on the mound. In both games the Tsawassen team was unable to solve the young lefty shutting them down each time he was on the mound. MVP honors went to Nick in that game.

The semi-finals was a hard fought battle against Ladner  which we held the lead on until the end when they managed to sneak in one extra run that we were unable to get back. It was a solid performance that our boys never gave up on but lost 7-6. However, our game was highlighted by two big hits by Tyson Ashton and a number of great outs engineered by his golden glove and great throwing arm earned him the MVP honors in the game.

The last game was the bronze medal game / rematch against the giant sized Tsawassen Tier 2 AAA’s. Our boys flipped the script and played excellent baseball with Nick Rabinovitch shutting them down for the first three innings and Dakota Janzen shutting them down for a couple more and Maguire Wakelyn coming in at the end to shut them down and win the game 11-5. There was plenty of great hitting by our boys highlighted Jack Neill who broke the other teams heart with a timely bomb to left field that landed right on the foul line, a number of great and timely hits by Tyson Dyck, two perfect bunts from Joel Robinson, more perfect bunts from Cardel Dick, Tyson Ashton and Nick Rabinovitch and finally a bullet throw out from behind the plate by the cannon of Jack Taylor to stop the attempted rally towards the end.

There was also some great fielding by the heart of the team, Conner Krahn, who made a miraculous jumping catch at second to end the game and bring home the hardware, earning Conner the MVP honors in the final game.

The team and parents had a blast on and off the field, and the boys showed that they are getting closer and closer to provincial form every game!!