Evan March hit a home run and Rod Betonio was dangerous at the plate, but the South 麻豆传媒映画All-Stars fell to 3-1 in the round-robin stage of the Little League Canadian Championship after a 5-2 loss to Ontario鈥檚 High Park Braves in Valleyfield, Que. on Aug. 4.
High Park and South Vancouver, which represents B.C. at the national tournament from Aug. 1 to 10, were both undefeated before their meeting at the Roland-Boyer Stadium at Parc Delpha-Sauv茅. It鈥檚 highly likely the two teams will meet again in the knock-out stage, and the champion will have to be better than Ontario or B.C. on the day.
The All-Stars held the lead twice, once in the second inning after March鈥檚 solo shot over the fence, and again in the bottom of the fourth after High Park tied the game 1-1. Joseph Sinclair hit an RBI single to bring Emma March in for the go-ahead run. The bases loaded, High Park made its second pitching substitution of the inning to bring in Tom Edward-Gireau who went on to strike out six batters in 2.1 innings for the win.
鈥淥nce we looked threatening again, they brought in an ace pitcher, a big boy,鈥� said South 麻豆传媒映画manager Brian Perry. 鈥淲e got a hit or two off him, but he kept us from scoring.鈥�
Ontario moves to the top of the standings with a 4-0 record while Alberta and B.C. are 3-1 and Quebec is 2-1.
鈥淥ntario is very strong, Alberta, too, and Quebec has a very strong team,鈥� said Perry. 鈥淏etween those three and us, I feel one of those is going to be the winner.鈥�
The champion moves on to the Little League World Series and trades in their provincial team jersey for Canada's Maple Leaf.
B.C. started its tournament with an extra-innings win over Alberta. The team from Lethbridge led 6-2 after four innings (Little League games for Majors players aged 11 and 12 top out at six innings) but South 麻豆传媒映画answered with four runs in the bottom of the fifth. The next two innings were scoreless but Alberta scored twice in the top of the eighth inning on one hit. Trailing 8-6, South 麻豆传媒映画scored an unearned run and then hit two home runs to win the game. Sinclair started the rally and then Betonio, the All-Stars鈥� lead-off hitter who missed numerous games at the provincial championship because of a knee injury, cranked the walk-off homer to win the game 9-8.
On Aug. 2, B.C. shut out the Prairies 5-0 and the next day decimated the Atlantic 18-0.
On Tuesday afternoon, B.C. plays the hosts from Valleyfield.The game starts at 3 p.m. 麻豆传媒映画time and can be followed live .
