St. Thomas brings home Baseball Ontario minor rookie B championship
overcoming lone loss of the season by beating same team in the final
Monday, September 3, 2018
St. Thomas Cardinals, Baseball Ontario minor rookie B champions, from left, are, front row - Linkin Kellington, Mathew East, Finn O'Sullivan, Zach Clark, Ayden Annett, Jacob Hopkins, middle row - Quinn Wilson, Drew Bate, Mason Cowie, Evan Fisher, Colten Brooks, Connor Schaap, back row - coaches Cory Matchim, Scott Bate, Rich Clark. (photo / courtesy Scott Bate)
By Rob J. Ross
GEORGINA, ON. - When the St. Thomas Cardinals suffered their first loss of the season, the defeat could have been too stunning to overcome.
It was day two of the Baseball Ontario minor rookie B tournament and the feature match between the two remaining unbeaten teams, Northumberland being the opponent.
Instead, the Cardinals brushed aside the setback, upped it up a notch and won three consecutive games, to capture the provincial championship, including beating Northumberland twice in the final.
St. Thomas finishes the 2018 year with an astonishing 39-1 overall record.
"The kids showed a lot of resolve. Losing the game Saturday night really showed the kids winning isn't going to come easy. Our team responded exactly the way we (coaches) had hoped they would. They played as good as they had all year on Sunday and won three convincing games," St. Thomas head coach Scott Bate said. "We were due to someone to give us a wake-up call. We've played Northumberland a few times throughout the year and they had given us good games, but they came out and beat us pretty handily on Saturday night."
The Cardinals eliminated LaSalle in the semifinals, before mercying the unbeaten Northumberland club, 15-5 and 19-9.
"Both games we went down 4-0 in the first inning. We came up at bat in the first inning and got the runs back and more," Bate said. "The kids were able to bounce back and not allow that to defeat them. Once we had Northumberland on the ropes, we were able to put them away and not let them hang around."
Coach Scott Bate, left, watches his St. Thomas Cardinals raise the trophy for winning the Baseball Ontario minor rookie B championship. (photo / courtesy Scott Bate)
As throughout the regular season and playoffs, the team's strength at provincials was a balanced group of players.
"To be honest, nobody stood out better than the next guy, because the next guy was just as good," said Bate. "We had to pick a tournament MVP and it was the hardest thing, because from one through nine in the order was really unbelievable. That was difference between us and other teams. We had no weak spots."
St. Thomas opened the 10-team tournament on the Friday, by defeating LaSalle, took care of Belle River and Woodslee on Saturday, before the showdown with Northumberland.
"We capped off an amazing season," added Bate. "We won two tournaments. We were 17-0 in the regular season. We swept the (London and District) playoffs, at 4-0. To finish 39-1 is unbelievable. I've never been involved with anything that dominant before."
Last season a majority of the current players were on a tier two minor rookie team that had more defeats than victories, but unbeknown to them, the Cardinals were building towards a special season.
"It was a tough year. Everyone was a year younger than who we were playing against. We kind of got beat up a little bit," said Bate. "You could tell they were coming around at the end of the year and starting to make good baseball plays. That carried in to this year and they were hungry this year because they had a rough year last year. We were expecting this group to be strong, but we never dreamed that they would go 39-1 and dominate."