22U AAA just miss opportunity to defend National title

The Baseball Ontario 22U Eliminations tournament was hosted in London from July 13-17 with the top two teams advancing to represent Ontario at Baseball Canada's National Championships in Winnipeg in early August.

 

The Newmarket Hawks 22U AAA team entered Elims with their sights set on defending their 2022 Baseball Canada National Championship. Baseball Canada hosts national championships each year for the 13U, 15U, 18U, 22U age groups. Club teams qualify for these events by winning their provincial qualifying tournament. In Ontario, these tournaments are called the Baseball Ontario Eliminations, aka the "Elims."

 

The Hawks opened the tournament with a 10-2 win over Etobicoke that was only a 4-1 game after 6 innings. The Hawks then followed with a narrow 4-3 win over Windsor. A third round 12-8 win over East York set up a game with the only other undefeated team, St. Thomas/London. It was a close game throughout with St. Thomas prevailing 7-6.

 

Game 5 for the Hawks was an elimination game for both them and their opponent, East York. The Hawks defeated them 7-5, and this meant there were now three teams remaining in the double-knockout tournament, all with one loss: Newmarket, St. Thomas, and Guelph. Two of these teams would advance to Baseball Canada's National Championship, and unfortunately it was the Hawks who were eliminated after another loss to St. Thomas. The Hawks only two losses in this tournament were to eventual champion St. Thomas.

 

Congratulations to the 2023 Hawks 22U AAA team for a tremendous run at Elims and their third-place finish. The current roster features several players who played much of their youth baseball as part of the Newmarket Baseball Association. And congratulations also to coaches Doug Lunney and Brian Bratt for leading the team in another successful season. 

 

Coach Doug has an incredible coaching record with the Hawks that includes an Elims championship at 13U (followed by 5th at the Nationals), Elims finalist finishes at 15U and 22U (followed by a National Championship last season), and this year's third place finish. The only gap is at 18U, but the pandemic cancelled that season.

 

The 22U Hawks conclude their regular season in early August when many of the players return to their university / college teams.