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The
Sarnia Braves began the first of two weekends of the
Thames Valley Crossover Tournament with a 2-0
record. The tournament pits Sarnia and Port Lambton
from the Western Counties league against Kincardine,
London, Forest City and Mitchell.
Sarnia opened the tournament with a 10-2 win over
the Thames Valley title holders from Kincardine.
Anthony Shepherd got the start for Sarnia and
pitched three strong innings. Wade Babula pitched
the final four innings for the win. The pair
combined to strike out eight.
Sarnia’s bats were on the Cubs’ pitching right off
the start and the Braves pulled ahead 5-2 after four
innings. They would tack on two more in the sixth
and three in the seventh to put the game well out of
reach.
James Grant led the offence with three hits, five
RBI and two runs scored. Wade Babula scored four
times, had a single and a stolen base. Nick Baljeu
collected two hits, two runs and an RBI. Russ Muhlig
and Mason McCarthy each had three hits and two RBI
for the Braves. Tyler Young and Greg Kemble had two
hits apiece, with Young also scoring twice.
In game two, Sarnia defeated the London Dodgers 7-6.
Rick Taylor pitched six strong innings, allowing
three earned runs, while striking out eight. Wade
Babula picked up his second win in relief.
Sarnia struck early with Babula scoring in the first
inning, but the Dodgers would put up two runs in the
bottom of the inning to take a 2-1 lead. Sarnia
would wake up in the second by scoring four runs,
then adding another in the sixth inning. But, down
6-2, the Dodgers roared back with in their half of
the sixth to tie the game heading into the last
frame.
Rory Fell would single to start the seventh. Anthony
Shepherd would then put down a great sacrifice bunt
to move Fell into scoring position. Doug Amlin would
single to move Fell to third with one out. Kemble
would then launch a sacrifice fly into right field
to give the Braves the 7-6 lead. Babula would shut
the door for good on the Dodgers by retiring the
side in the bottom of the seventh.
In addition to the pitching win, Babula scored three
times on three hits. Amlin went four-for-four on the
day with two RBI. Fell scored twice on two hits and
Kemble scored once with an RBI. Grant had another
three RBI with one hit while Baljeu picked up two
hits to round out the offence.
The Braves will continue the tournament on July 9th
as they host Mitchell and Forest City in Courtright.
The top two teams from round-robin play will
face-off in a sudden death Championship in July.
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