AMBA

Abbotsford Minor Baseball Association

AMBA
11U 

Angels Win Gold at Boulanger Tournament

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The 11U Mosquito AAA Angels won Gold at the 2016 Boulanger Tournament in Cloverdale. The Tournament Championship came with an emotional 6-5 victory in an extra-innings thriller versus Cloverdale in the final.

IMG_2506The Angels opened the tournament with a comfortable 13-0 win over Richmond. In the second game the host Spurs led most of the way and the Angels needed to come from behind in a 6-5 game that could have gone either way. In the final pool game, Aldergrove also led early before Abbotsford was able to break the game open for an 11-5 win.

As the only 3-0 team through the opening round, the Angels took first in the pool but in the playoffs had to face the undefeated Chilliwack Cougars, who had tied all three games.  Chilliwack also took the early lead and once again the Angels were forced to fashion a comeback.  They took the lead, only to see Chillwack claw their way back into it, tying the game late. The Angels finally were able to finish them off in a hard fought semifinal contest.

Cloverdale defeated Ridge Meadows in the other, closely contested, semifinal.  The Final was to feature a rematch of the these traditional rivals.

Cloverdale took control of the early part of the game, as a 2 run homer put them up.  But again the Angels were able to fight back, as timely hitting and excellent baserunning helped them tie it up. Cloverdale took the lead once more, but the determination of this group of Angels was too much. The tied it up in the bottom of the 6th, forcing extra innings. The Abbotsford team took the game, scoring the winning run on a dramatic walk-off hit in the bottom of the 7th.

For this group of Angels, this victory represented back-to-back Boulanger Tournament Championships, as the same roster of boys had won gold in the 2015 10U tournament. The win was also nice for a handful of these Angels, namely Jimmy Boulanger, Landon Wakelyn, Ronan Sexton and Trey Gairdner, who passed their big brothers in winning a second gold and third medal (Silver in 2014) in Mosquito play at the Tournament. But the win had to be the sweetest for Jimmy and his Dad, Coach Todd Boulanger, as they once again played, and won, the tournament named in honour of Jimmy’s Grandfather/Todd’s Dad.