The Inside Pitch
Baseball is done in King for another year
By Lee-Ann Brinovec

The 2007 baseball season has come to a close, as the last remaining King Cobra team has finished its action.

The Phil's Motor sponsored bantam team finished off a successful season with a disappointing loss in the finals to Bradford's Centre Ice Sports.

Phil's Motors had won a come-from-behind semifinal game last Tuesday night against Aurora's Dr. Orschel's Drillers to reach the championship game. In the semi-final game, our bantams found themselves down by six runs after only one inning, with their lone run coming from Sean Strong, who hit a blooper over the head of the second baseman, and then managed to steal his way around the bases to score.

Coming back from a 7-1 deficit seemed to be an insurmountable task. They tightened up defensively, and managed to score another run, again, due to aggressive base running, when Brandon Pedro stole home. Brett Cummings helped his team stay close as he pitched a great third inning that saw Aurora only get one runner across the plate. It seemed to spark the offence, with Luke Robertson showing some great patience at the plate, drawing a walk to get the all important base runner, Kelli Beer laying down a perfect bunt to move him to second and Rachel Jacobs beating out a softly hit grounder back to the pitcher. All three of them came around to score and narrow the deficit to 8-5.

The King team continued to shine defensively in the fourth as Dylan Maggiacomo struck out two batters and catcher Theo Willert and third baseman Beer combined to pick off an Aurora runner attempting to steal third. Mateo Perone led off the bottom of the fourth with a towering drive to the outfield and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Matt Febbraio. Perone took the mound, in relief in the fifth, to pitch his team out of a bases-loaded jam. He got two quick outs and caught the runner on third in a run down, and managed to get him out at home.

The Phil's Motor crew was now down by a score of 9-6 and time was running out. Jeff Conzelman was hit by a pitch and awarded first base, and he used his speed to steal his way to third. Dean Orr brought him home on a single. Maggiacommo followed with a solid hit to deep centre that brought Orr home. Cummings kept the Cobras alive as he hustled to beat out the throw to first on a ground ball to the pitcher and Robertson hit an infield single to bring in the tying run. The King team had tied the game 9-9, and with two runners still on base, things were definitely looking good for our home team. Max Whicher came to the plate and connected for a solid hit, and even though he was unable to beat out the throw to first, he brought home the winning run.

The Cobras' 10-9 victory was a real team effort, and set them up to face the Bradford Centre Ice team in the finals.

They knew even before the first pitch was thrown, it would take something of a miracle to beat this team of outstanding players.

The game was close for the first five innings, as both teams traded runs, and showed defensively why both were in the championship game. Strong made a great catch at the fence in centre to end the top of the first with Bradford scoring just two runs. Willert scored on Perone's hit to right field to narrow the score to 2-1 after an inning.

Conzelman was again hit by a pitch in the second inning and used his speed to steal home.

The Cobras gave up two more runs in the third, but a nice play between Armand Sanguini and Cummings to get a force out at second helped end the inning and limit the damage.

Strong and Willert scored in the bottom of the fourth, and it was a tight game with Phil's Motor only down 6-4.

It seems this is where the wheels fell off and they gave up an overwhelming seven runs in the sixth. Despite Robertson, Whicher and Beer reaching base in the bottom of the sixth, they were unable to score, and went down 14-5 to a very talented Bradford team.

The one bad inning, tarnished what was otherwise a very close game.

The King Township Baseball Association would like to thank the coaching staff of Marz Perone, Ron Strong, Dean Sterman, and Score Keeper Tony Febbraio and congratulate the players of the bantam house league team for a great season.

Wind-up Day

Aug. 24 was Wind-up day for the King Township Baseball Association.

It was the official close of the baseball season and was held in Nobleton Park. Under threatening skies the day began with the Hit, Run and Throw competitions for each age group beginning with our youngest ball players. Team pictures were distributed and it gave everyone a chance to thank the coaches and volunteers that have made it such a successful and enjoyable season.

Hit Run and Throw

Competition

Junior rookie - Tile Source K1, Jake Hansen; Schomberg IGA K2, Mark Lago; Filebank Records K3, David Rumboldt. Senior rookie- TVS Development K1, Matthew Pacitto; Rona Cashway K2, Julien Cristante.

The rest of the age groups sent their top two finalists from their individual team competitions to compete against the other finalists from that age group. The winner at the mosquito division was Will MacLachlan, pewee division was Daryl Copithorn, bantam house league was Luke Robertson and bantam rep was Josh Lipscombe.

The day was highlighted by a barbecue and raffle draws for great prizes, among them tickets to Blue Jays games at the Rogers Centre.

Each team handed out individual awards to their players:

Mosquito

Armstrong Petroleum K1 - Most Improved Player, Matthew Fiorini; Best Defensive Player, Andrew Cipollone; Most Sportsmanlike Player, Mathew Ardizzi; Most Valuable Player, Joshua Hollings.

King City Auto K2 - Most Improved Player, Connor Brunt; Best Defensive Player, J. P. Capella; Most Sportsmanlike Player, Daniel Quinterri; Most Valuable Player, Austin Larsh.

Harris & Harris LLP - Most Improved Player, Christian Sarracini; Playoff MVP, Kamren Wallbank; Final Game MVP, Alex Douglas; Team MVP (tie), Will Machlachlan and Matthew Sperduti.

Peewee

Glen Hulse Plumbing K1 - Most Improved Player, Jack Stone; Best Defensive Player, Patrick Price; Most Sportsmanlike Player, Tristan Joseph; Most Valuable Player, Jonathon Mele.

Royal Lepage K2 - Most Improved Player, Brandon D'Amato; Best Defensive Player, Shane Rudnitski; Most Sportsmanlike Player, David Merrick; Most Valuable Player, Marshall Perone.

Rhind Electric K3 - Most Improved Player, Dylan Love; Best Defensive Player, Travis Brinovec; Most Sportsmanlike Player, Dennis Orr; Most Valuable Player, Scott Rhind.

Bantam House league

Phil's Motors - Most Improved Player, Armand Sanguini; Best Defensive Player, Sean Strong; Most Sportsmanlike Player, Jeff Conzelmann; Most Valuable Player, Mateo Perone.

Bantam Rep

CDC Insurance, Hydro One and Rochon Industries - Most Improved Player, Stephen Leonard; Best Defensive Player, Danton Brinovec; Coaches Award, Ryan Forletta; Most Valuable Player, Josh Lipscombe.

We would like to wish our Phil's Motors Bantam HL team the best of luck as they head into the semifinals and most probably the finals this week. They finished round- robin play with an impressive 4-1 record under the guidance of coaches Marz Perone and Ron Strong, and were to play a semi final game Tuesday. The championship game will be played Sept. 8 at the Optimist Park in Aurora. Game time is at 7:30 p.m. Come out and support our bantam team, and for all of the peewee players who will be moving up to the bantam age group next year, it will give you and opportunity to see what you will be facing.

Player

of the Week

Our final King Township Player of the Week award for the 2007 season goes to Theodore Willert from the Phil's Motor bantam team. Theo was an instrumental part of his team's success this season and this was quite evident as he took a leadership role in the final two games. Congratulations Theodore on a great season.

We would like to extend our congratulations to our bantam rep players as they spent six hours last Friday and Saturday, trying to secure a position on the YSBA Rep All-Star team. Three players were invited to attend the try-outs and all three represented King Township Baseball magnificently. Danton Brinovec and Ryan Forletta, although they did not make the final cut, showed the teams from the rest of the York-Simcoe Rep loop that the ballplayers from King are extremely talented. Congratulations to Josh Lipscombe, as he will be the lone representative of the KTBA in the upcoming tournament.