This has been an incredible ball season from start to finish for some dedicated young ball players.
The Senior Rookie #2 ball team, who play out of Beaver Valley, are made up of nine players from Meaford and one from Collingwood, and are coached by Darren Bowins.
They finished the regular season with a record of 13-1-0, won their mid-season tournament with 5 straight wins in June, and then won 5 more games at their year-end tournament hosted by Beaver Valley in July. They won their final game convincingly with a score of a whopping 27-1.
If that wasn’t enough, they dared to do something no other team from Beaver Valley had tried before- they entered the SOBA House League Provincial Championship tournament.
This past weekend they were in Pickering to play with different rules and against teams they had never before been up against.
It was a busy weekend for the team that began with their first game on Saturday morning at 9:00am when they faced off against Newmarket and managed to score 11 runs and only let their opponent score 3 in the first inning, before shutting them down for the rest of the game.
After a quick break they were back on the diamond at 11:15 this time against Vaughn #1 and the Beavery Valley team once again pulled off a win with a final score of 13-5.
Game 3 began at 3:45 against a team from Pickering who arrived ready to battle but Beaver Valley came out strong and stayed strong, never giving up. Final score of that game was 17-2 in favour of Beaver Valley.
Apparently these youngsters really wanted to play some more ball on Sunday as only the top 4 teams would move on. Beaver Valley and Hamilton were tied for points for 1st place, but Hamilton got the lead with more runs scored and so game 1 on Sunday saw Beaver Valley playing against Vaughn #2 and they managed to do it again. Final score was 8-2.
Next up was the Championship game against the unbeaten Hamilton. The kids seemed up for the challenge and only the parents felt nervous! Though they got off to a rocky start allowing Hamilton to have a couple of 5 run innings, Beaver Valley came on strong in their first at bat and got 5 of their own runs in, when the game came to an end the final score was 12-8 in favour of Hamilton.
This whole experience was fabulous for the kids who all had a blast, received some great trophies and played some great ball. Perhaps even more important, the tournament produced some great memories that will remain with the players and their parents always.
Not many teams this age (9 players are 9 years old and 1 player age 7) can say that in their Senior Rookie year of ball they ended their season with a record of 27-2-0. Every player on this team scored runs and made great catches and throws to make the plays to get the other teams out.
First baseman Ben Macdonald, affectionately known as Big Mac received a new ball glove from the sponsor Rawlings for his excellent defensive plays throughout the tournament.
According to the team coaches these kids were an awesome bunch of kids to coach. To watch them play and learn the plays to complete on their own and then see the smiles on their faces was something they will never forget. Thanks to all the players and their parents who worked as a team for such a fabulous season of ball.
