Barrie Red Sox

The 2003 Minor Mosquito Red Sox Kory and Dylan warm up at the YSBAs Adam puts on his game face Colin at the plate! Graham makes his pitch. Kory rounds the bases. Connor at the plate! Jacob throws some heat.

2002: A Season to be proud of! Barrie's Garner's Sports Rookie Red Sox baseball season came to an end on Labor Day weekend for the 2002 season. While the team came up short of capturing the OBA Provincial title the team did accomplish several significant milestones and have put in place a strong foundation for the future. It has been several years since a Barrie Rookie Ball team captured both the York Simcoe regular season and playoff championships along with qualify for the OBA provincials. The 2002 Barrie Red Sox won these titles in a convincing fashion sweeping both tournaments and they managed to record some really unique achievements during the seaon including scoring 10 runs in a single inning (unique given you can only send 10 players to the plate in an inning) and managing to send 10 players to the plate every inning for an entire game. The most impressive aspect of this team was the ability of the boys to hang in and play every team close. In 4 losses to arguably the three best teams in Ontario (Cambridge, North York and Mississauga X 2) the Barrie squad lost by a combined score of 51-46. That's not easy on the heart if you are a spectator. Red Sox exit early at the OBA's A weak start in game one haunted the Barrie Red Sox at the OBA's. Barrie faced off against St Thomas in the opening game and the Barrie squad simply didn't bring their "A" game on this night. St Thomas outscored Barrie 9-1 in the first three innings and cruised to an 11-8 win. The most shocking aspect to this game was the disappearance of the Barrie bats. St Thomas played their outfield along the edge of the infield for most of the game and Barrie simply couldn't take advantage. It was simply one of those games you would like to forget. In Round 2 Barrie met Cambridge. Cambridge had suffered similar difficulties in Round 1 as Barrie did and Ajax hammered Cambridge 30 - 16. Barrie faced off with Cambridge in an elimination game that saw Barrie's bats return. In the end Cambridge also hit the ball extremely well and they went on to win 18-17 in extra innings. Despite the heart breaking loss Barrie battled hard and played a game to be proud of. Cambridge would go on to destroy Mississauga, 20 -0, and eliminate the Tigers from the tournament. The Tigers had lost earlier in the tournament to North York. Cambridge eventually faced with an undefeated North York team in the finals. In game one of the finals Cambridge handed North York their only defeat of the tournament (21-10) but Cambridge didn't have enough left to beat them again and North York won the final game 14 - 8 to secure the OBA championship. Here is our final line score:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Final
Barrie	6	0	0	1	0	3	7	0	16
Cambridge	2	1	3	1	5	0	5	1	17

North York wins the OBA's for 2002 The Barrie Red Sox congratulate Coach Steve Davis and the North York Rookie Ball team upon winning the 2002 OBA title. North York proved to be the best with victories over both Mississauga North and Cambridge in order to secure the title. Here are the round-by-round results with a few of the surprises highlighted: Round 1

Wellend 19 Oakridge 9 North York 11 Mississauga North 10 Riverside 9 West Mountain 8 Ajax 30 Cambridge 16 St Thomas 11 Barrie 8

Round 2

North York beats Riverside St Thomas 21 Ajax 15 Mississauga North 12 West Mountain 0 Cambridge 18 Barrie 17 (in 8 innings)

Round 3

St Thoms 15 Wellend 14 Cambridge 33 Oakridge 4 Ajax 11 Riverside6

Round 4

Ajax 18 Welland 3 Cambridge 20 Mississauga North 0 North York 15 St Thomas 2

Round 5

North York 14 Ajax 2 Cambridge 21 St Thomas 8

Finals (Cambridge needed to win 2 since North York was undefeated to this point)

Game 1: Cambridge 21 North York 11 Game 2: North York 14 Cambridge 8

Red Sox sweep the 2002 OBA playdowns After coming from behind in their last at bat to win the opening game against a really strong Newmarket team the Barrie Red Sox cruised to victory at the York Simcoe playdowns. The team relied on some timely hitting and an opportunistic defence. In their four games the Red Sox defeated each of the top three teams in the loop, including the second place Vaughan Vikings twice. In the end the team outscored the opposition 54 - 17. Game by game results are as follows:

Game 1: Barrie 12 Newmarket 9 Game 2: Barrie 18 Markham 3 Game 3: Barrie 19 Vaughan 3 Game 4: Barrie 5 Vaughan 2

Red Sox capture the 2002 York Simcoe year-end championship After cruising through the first three games in the tournament with three victories by mercy the Red Sox came up against a relentless, "never say die" team from Vaughan that pushed the team the full seven innings. In the end Devon H drove in Connor A to score the winning run and make the final 16-15. The victory extends the teams win streak to 12 in a row! During the four York Simcoe year-end chamionship tournament games the Red Sox outscored the opposition 83 - 28. Game by game results are as follows:

Game 1: Barrie 17 Newmarket 4 (in 5 innings) Game 2: Barrie 14 Vaughan 4 (in 5 innings) Game 3: Barrie 36 Georgina 5 (in 5 innings) Game 4: Barrie 16 Vaughan 15

At the start of the 2002 season 55 teams set out to become the best Rookie Ball team in Ontario. By late July the field of teams competing for the highest classification level in Ontario was reduced to 36. Given the classification options for the Rookie Ball division are limited to two (either "A" or "B"), the field of 36 teams that is competing for the Rookie Ball "A" title is the largest group of teams relative to any other division of baseball in the Province. No other division of baseball (i.e., Pee Wee, Mosquito, etc.) has as many teams competing for the championship as the Rookie "A" division. Most teams that are competing for the Rookie title have already won the right to represent their respective area through a playoff series or elimination tournament. The following is the field of teams that will be battling along with the Barrie Red Sox for the Provincial Championship:

• Welland (NDBA)
• North York (TBA)
• Mississauga North (COBA)
• West Mountain/Hamilton (HDBA)
• Riverside/Niagara Falls (SPBA)
• Cambridge (ICBA)
• Ajax (EOBA)
• St. Thomas (LDBA)
• Oakridge/London (the host)

After winning their division of the round robin series the "real" Red Sox came up short in the tournament semi-final dropping the game 15 - 13 to the tournament host Etobicoke team. The loss prevented a much desired rematch with North York who would go on to mercy Etobicoke in the tournament final. Overall the team continued to play some strong ball and hung in tough to the end. A couple of tough breaks lead to the teams downfall. Click here to view game-by-game results. Special mention goes to Cole T and Christian B both played their best games of the year at this tournament not just at the plate where Christian hit 2 homers and had 3 triples but also in the field where Cole was flawless and even turned a spectacular double play in the game against Pickering. Colin B was also devestating at the plate, he lead the team in hits and was the only player on the team to collect 3 hits in every game. Colin ended up going 12 for 14. Connor A and Michael G were also relentless at the plate. Connor collected 9 hits in his 12 at bats while Michael was second on the team in hits going 10 for 12 at the plate. Congratulations also goes out to Dane G who represented the team well in the skills competition. Dane wound up 3rd in the throwing discipline. Honourable mention goes out to Colin B who ran the bases in 15.33 seconds during the running discipline. Colin's time placed 4th overall just behind the second and third place times of 15.31 seconds and 15.32 seconds. Adam R also deserves mention for his performenace in throwing - he was just inches short of breaking into the top three throws.