U11 Boys Claim Bronze at ORSA Provincials

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After a long weekend of softball, the Caledonia Comets U11 Boys team walked away with bronze in the U11 "A" division of the Ontario Rural Softball Association Championships.

On Saturday June 24, after dropping the opening game against a very strong Norwich-Otterville team, the Comets were faced with elimination in the double-knockout style tournament.
In the 2nd game later that afternoon, the Comets faced Puslinch A in a tough matchup.
In the top half of the first inning, Drew G drew a leadoff walk, before Pierce H collected the RBI to hit him in, giving Caledonia the 1-0 lead. Hayden B took the mound for the Comets, and after a couple leadoff runs by Puslinch, Hayden struck out the next 3 batters to keep the game 2-1 after one inning.
In the 2nd, Noah K, Layton H, and Cole V all collected walks, before Sam S got the RBI single. Davin S hit a hard ball to first to cash in a run on the sacrifice, before Drew G would also collect a walk, and Sam S came around to score, giving Caledonia the 5-2 lead. In the bottom half of the inning, Hayden B once again struck out 3 batters to keep the score 5-2 for the Comets.  In the 3rd inning, Pierce H collected a hit, and was driven in later on by a hit by Lucas M to add to the Comets' lead. Puslinch would respond with a couple runs in the bottom of the inning, before Hayden B once again struck out 3 batters.
In the top half of the 4th, Owen M walked, Cole V got a single, Drew G walked, and then Carson P collected a double and James G a single, all five of them scoring later on with hits by Pierce H and Hayden B to add to Caledonia's lead. Puslinch would score 3 in the bottom half, but Hayden B collected 3 more strikeouts to finish the game with 12 k's!  Noah K would add an insurance run in the last inning to give Caledonia the 12-7 victory, eliminating Puslinch.

On Sunday morning, Caledonia was faced with a tough matchup with the St. George squad who had eliminated Hickson. St. George would open the scoring in the top half of the first, but Caledonia responded in the bottom half. Drew G (walk), Carson P (single) and James G (walk) would all score runs, with Lucas M adding a single to give Caledonia the 3-1 lead after one inning. Hayden B struck out 3 in the top half of the 2nd to keep the game 3-1. Despite walks by Cole V and Davin S, with a double by Sam S in between to load the bases, Caledonia couldn't score, leaving the game the same score.
St. George's offence scored 3 runs in the top half of the 3rd, putting them ahead by one run, before the Comets went to work in the bottom half.  Drew G and Hayden B would collect walks, Carson P and Pierce H would hit triples, and James G a single, and with lots of stolen bases, including a few key steals of home, Caledonia would score 5 to give them the 8-4 lead.
The lead wouldn't hold, however, as the strong St. George offence would respond with 5 runs of their own, giving them the 9-8 lead, going into the last at-bats for the Comets. Faced with the pressure of elimination, Lucas M would start the inning with a single, stealing all the way over to 3rd base a few pitches later. Noah K would walk, before Layton H drove in Lucas to tie the game. Noah K, the winning run, would steal home a few pitches later, giving Caledonia the hard-fought 10-9 win.

Unfortunately, Caledonia had to play the semi-final against Ayr immediately after, with a trip to the final against undefeated Norwich-Otterville on the line. Some great defence was shown by the Comets early on, including an amazing catch in the outfield by left fielder Zack A, who sprinted into near-centre to make the catch. Despite only trailing 6-2 after 3 innings of play, the Comets offence ran out of gas, losing a hard-fought game to Ayr.

Overall, the boys played a great tournament. As you can tell by the pictures, the boys had a great time together as a team, and are looking forward to a strong 2nd half to the season!

Photo Album:
https://www.esportsdesk.com/leagues/albums_open.cfm?clientID=6532&leagueID=31931&albumID=17472&arch=0