Nationals are Mosquito NL Champions
Mosquito NL Championship
Nationals 9
Dodgers 5
The final game of a very busy weekend of Mosquito Division baseball saw the Nationals (#1 seed) playing host to the Dodgers (#3 seed) in the National League Championship game Sunday afternoon at Lions Park.
Both teams had been playing well thus far in the playoffs. With the winner of this game getting an opportunity to face the American League Champions, the Orioles, next weekend for the Mosquito Cup, this promised to be a game that the spectators would surely enjoy!
With the Dodgers at the bats first, the Nationals sent Ryan Sullivan to the mound. Sully came out chucking bullets but the Dodgers batters were not to be intimidated and as expected they came out swinging hard. The second pitch of the game saw an extremely hard line drive by Sam Brandsma find its way into the steady glove of Trey Gairdner for the games first out. More solid defense behind Sullivan allowed the Dodgers to only score one run before he ended the inning himself when he snagged a sharply hit comebacker hit by Jack Neill to end the inning.
The bottom half of the first was just as exciting. The Dodger defense was just as sharp and Tyson Dyck was pitching with his usual consistency. Two pop flys found their way into Dodger gloves and some quick thinking contributed to getting three Nationals out but not before Jaxon Brar and Jack Taylor were able to score runs and help the Nationals take the lead 2-1.
From there, the defenses took over and the game advanced at an astonishing pace. During the second and third innings it was only the Nationals that were able to score one more run. Heading into the fourth inning with the Nationals leading 3-1 and the top of the order at bat for the Dodgers, the offence arrived. With the hard throwing Tait Lee on the Mound for the Nationals, Coach Scott Alexander had a fire lit under his best hitters and they did not let him down, 4 hits and 8 stolen bases later, not even a throw from deep center field to home plate by Jack Taylor, could stop the Dodgers from scoring their 4 runs.
Down by two runs the Nationals were not to be bested. The middle of the Nationals line-up provided 3 hits and 7 stolen bases of their own to recapture the lead by scoring three runs for their side. The highlight of the half inning saw Brayden Lode’s fast feet and quick thinking get him out of a run-down situation that would surely have led to a different result for the inning.
With a 6-5 lead, the Nationals sent Jack Taylor to the mound for the fifth inning. Showing his usual command with his pitches, he was able to shut down any comeback attempt by the Dodgers. Taylor Struck out 5 of the 7 batters he faced during the closing innings of the game, with only Owen Wheatley being able to reach on a single in the fifth. The National’s offence provided a buffer for the closer by scoring 3 more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Taylor was able to get Tyson Dyck to pop up a ball high into the air at the fence in foul territory near the Dodger’s dugout and first baseman Ryan Sullivan was able to make the catch to provide the game’s final out.
This action packed game, that was played out in under 90 minutes, provided those in attendance with an entertaining and exciting display of AAHA Mosquito baseball being played at its best.
Next weekend sees the Dodgers facing the Red Sox in the Bronze Medal game at 1 pm at Lions Park followed by the Mosquito Cup Championship game between the Nationals and the Orioles at 4 PM.
contributed by Rob Taylor