Aug 24, 2014 | Jackson Lale | 1045 views
LDBA Playoffs
The St. Thomas Optimist Mosquito Cardinals only had so much fuel in the tank on day two of the LDBA Playoffs. After a pair of wins to open the tournament, the gruelling schedule caught up to them during the rest of Saturday. In the end, the back to back to back games, and facing the top seeded Chatham Diamonds in the quarter final was too much to overcome.
In the opener the boys were up against Ilderton. Despite getting down 8-1 in the second inning against the the ninth seed, the Cards avoided the early scare with a 19-14 win.
Early Saturday, they drew second seeded North London. This is a team that was 3-0 vs St. Thomas during the regular season. This game was one of the best of the season, and was tied at four going into the bottom of the 6th. The Nationals would scratch across a run, and take a one run lead to the top of the 7th. But after Colin Weir and Christian Vecchio reached Tyler Lale came up with a two run single to put the Cards ahead. Lale also picked up the win on the mound closing out the bottom half for a 6-5 win.
At 2-0 the Cards were disappointed not to receive a bye, so it meant another game just a half hour after that intense contest.
The next opponent was Tillsonburg who was coming off a bye, and playing their first game of the day. St. Thomas started the game hot loading the bases in each of the first two innings, but couldn't come up with a hit to bring the runners home. Those early chances were really all they got, and despite ending the game with more hits than the Otters, it was a 6-1 loss.
After just a 45 minute break, it was off to Harrietsville for their third straight game, and 4th in the span of 24 hours. To top it off, it was an elimination game against Chatham (the top team in the LDBA). For the first time this season the boys put up a fight against the Diamonds taking this game the distance before running short on pitching. The Diamonds eventually pulled it out 11-5, but the score was not a real indication of how close this game was.
Overall the boys took some steps in the right direction. A win against a team they hadn't beat all season, and proved to Chatham that St. Thomas could be a force to reckon with at the OBA's next weekend.