The Cloverdale Spurs jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, and went on to a 7-3 victory over the host team to win the bronze medal at the Baseball Canada 15U Boys National Championships Aug. 14-18 in Vaughn, Ontario.
The Spurs won four of seven games at the four-day, 11-team tournament, winning two of three playoff contests.
Austin Brown went three-for-three at the plate with a pair of doubles, a triple, four runs batted in (RBI) and two runs scored in Sunday’s bronze medal game.
Sami Shoemaker was the winning pitcher, throwing six and one-third innings and allowing two earned runs on three hits and a walk while striking out eight Vaughn batters.
After going 2-2 (won-lost) in the round robin, the Spurs began the five-team playoff with a 14-2 romp past Saskatchewan on Saturday to reach the semifinal round.
Cloverdale got all the offense they would need in the first inning, sending 12 batters to the plate and scoring seven times. Dawson Gray was the offensive leader with three hits including a double and a triple, collecting four RBIs and scoring twice. Wesley Moore had a pair of singles, scoring two runs and batting in two others.
Starting pitcher Liam Vulcano threw six innings to get the win. The two runs allowed, both earned, came on five hit and a pair of walks. Vulcano struck out 10 Saskatchewan batters.
In Sunday’s morning’s semifinal, the Spurs quickly fell behind 3-0, cut the difference to one run midway through the game but fell short in a 6-2 defeat.
Adam Reston singled to score Moore in the top of the fourth inning, then went home on a triple from Brown to cut the Ontario advantage to 3-2.
Ontario replied with two runs in the bottom half of the inning, and added another in the sixth.
The Spurs won the provincial championship earlier this month in Rutland.
