NY Blues Minor Mosquito AAA Win Season’s First Tournament

With the introduction of pitching this season, there was a lot of uncertainty for the Minor Mosquito North York Blues. So far, so good.

The Blues competed in the Vaughan Vikings Minor Mosquito AAA tournament during the May long weekend and came away victorious. It was the team’s first tournament competition since a stinging defeat in finals of last years’s OBA tournament.

Baseball is about pitching and defense, and the Blues were almost seamless on both fronts in Vaughan.

The boys opened play under the lights against Brampton on a chilly Friday night. Thankfully, the bats were hot as the Blues battered Brampton 18-0.

The next day, the team faced London for the first time. London is traditionally a good team but the Blues took control early and cruised 12-4. Later on Saturday, the Blues were able to overcome a slow start to neutralize Markham 10-4. Every member of team had key hits and Jason, Ari K, Dylan, Markus, Matt and Waylon provided the steady pitching.

“I told the kids to pitch to contact,” Blues head coach Mark Bondy said. “If we do that, nobody plays better defense than us.”

Sunday morning set up a semi-final game against Etobicoke, another team the Blues were facing for the first time. The Blues managed to wear down Etobicoke’s towering starting pitcher and cruised to 13-2 victory.

That set up the final against Barrie, a Blue’s old nemesis. The game was tight early, but timely team hitting and a quality start by Matt proved to be too much for Barrie as North York prevailed 8-3.

It’s a nice start for the Blues with lots of encouraging signs both at the plate and on the mound.

Special shout out to Waylon, who did it all this weekend and was named the team’s MVP.