Mosquito Cup Championship: Orioles Over Nationals

2014 Mosquito Cup Championship
Orioles 10
Nationals 5

On a beautiful sunny day at Lions Park, the Orioles captured the 2014 Mosquito Cup with an emphatic 10-5 victory over the Nationals.  The Nationals came into the game as the Commissioner’s Trophy winners for 1st Place Overall in the regular season. The teams had split their regular season series, with only a single run in favour of the Orioles over the two games.

Jimmy Boulanger started for the O’s and was excellent, striking out two for a shutout 1st inning.  The O’s then took the lead in the bottom half, as Hunter Macleod led off with a double. He would score on a double from Dakota Janzen, who scored on a triple from Kade Vanderwoude.  Kade also scored on a passed ball to give the O’s a 3-0 lead.

 

Jimmy continued his mastery of the Nationals batter in the 2nd, striking out two more to preserve the shutout lead. In the bottom half the Orioles extended their lead to 7-0 with the 4 run limit. Sebastian Altilia walked while Logan Clark, Jarek Sloboda, Hunter, Ronan Sexton and Dakota Janzen all singled.

Ronan Sexton took the mound for the 3rd inning and immediately struck out two. A ground out should have got the O’s out of the inning but some defensive errors led to unearned runs.  They looked to score more but a deep fly ball by Gio Folka was snared by Jarek Sloboda, to the delight of the Orioles fans and players alike.

The Nationals had shown they were making a game of it, clawing back to 7-3. However the Orioles answered right back with 2 runs in the bottom of the 3rd to make it a 9-3 game.

Dakota Janzen came in to pitch for the O’s and shut down the Nationals cold in the 4th. The Nats countered with their Ace, Jack Taylor, who did the same to the Orioles.  The Nationals went down to Janzen 1,2,3 in the 5th. Taylor continued his dominance of the Orioles in the bottom half, with one exception: a spectacular inside the park homerun from Cade Vanderwoude, who drove a ball just fair, deep into right field. The ball bounced around, eluding the fielder before he finally got it in. The relay throw was oh so close but Cade combined great speed with a perfect slide to avoid the tag.

With the score 10-3, the Orioles took the field looking to close it out.  The Nationals would not go down without a fight, especially from Jack Taylor, who doubled, and Tait Lee, who singled to score Jack.  Tait would later score on a passed ball, but that was as close as the Nats would get. Dakota struck out the final National to seal the 10-5 victory and the 2014 Mosquito Cup for the Orioles.

The Nationals coaches selected Jarek Slobada as the Orioles Player of the Game, while the Orioles coaches selected Tait Lee for the Nationals.  The Orioles then collected their Gold Medals and the Mosquito Cup Championship Trophy, which had been skillfully crafted and donated by Rob Taylor.

A nod goes to the Plate Umpire, Tyler Nelson, and his brother, Base Umpire Bradley Nelson, who both did an excellent job managing the game from start to finish.  The boys were honoured for a season of superior umpiring with selection to work this game.  Thanks also goes to Scotty Alexander who set up a sound system and provided the voice talent.   Thanks also to Darren and Mason Gairdner for field prep.

Of course, a big thanks goes out to all the Mosquito Coaches who gave so much of their time, effort, knowledge and enthusiasm for coaching the boys and girls of the Mosquito division. Thanks to all the parents and others who supported the players by bringing them to the park and cheering them on. Finally, a thanks goes to all the players who worked hard at getting better at baseball, who entertained us so much with your play, and who made us happy to know that you were having fun.