18/19U Knights win Amherst Invitational

2009-06-21

Game Summaries

Game 1

Sunday - 12:00 PM
Erie County Community College Field

Ottawa Knights 7
Tri-County Eagles 0

The Ottawa Knights 19U started off their tournament season in fine fashion this weekend at the Amherst Invitational near Buffalo NY. The Knights managed to play one inning on Saturday before all games for the day were postponed due to rain. On Sunday, the Knights were back at it with a 12:00 pm start. Casey Floyd took the mound for the opening game, Floyd cruised through the 1st three innings facing nine batters and appeared to be unhittable. Hammond scored 1 run for the Knights in the 2nd inning, in the top of the 5th, Kritsch lead off with a single then was pushed over on a Mike Byrne sacrifice bunt then Harding smacked a double in the gap for the games 1st RBI. The 6th inning saw no score for either side, in the top of the 7th, the Knights blew the doors off, scoring 5 runs on 5 hits to make the score 7-0 Knights. Credit Steve Renaud and Corey Herback with 2 RBIs each and Hammond with one. Floyd shut down the Eagles in the bottom of the 7th for the complete game shut out, Casey gave up 4 hits with 1 walk and 3 K's.

Game 2

Sunday - 2:30PM
Erie County Community College Field

Ottawa Knights 10
Bath, NY 19U 0

The Knights hitting continued into the 2nd game of the tournament, the 1-0 record meant the Knights had to win to advance to the finals in the the 6 team format. Sure enough, the Knights offence started right where they left off with 2 runs in the 1st and 4 in the 2nd inning. Hammond picked up 4 RBIs in the 1st two innings and Renaud picked up 2. Charlie Crabb took to the hill in game 2 and absolutely dominated the Bath hitters, Charlie would give up only 1 hit through 5 innings. The Knights didn't stop there; scoring 4 more runs in the next 3 innings, after 5 innings the score was 10-0 Knights, the mercy rule kicked in the game ended after 5 innings. Crabb took the complete game victory with a 1 hitter, credit Byrne, Harding and Renaud with 2 runs each.

Game 3 - Championship Game

Sunday - 4:30 PM
Erie County Community College Field

Ottawa Knights 4
Brockville Bunnies 1

The Ottawa Knights were in familiar territory in the final game of the Amherst Invitational, last year on the 16U circuit, the Knights reached the finals in 7 of 10 tournaments and won 5 of them. Their opponent on this day was the Brockville Bunnies 19U team, the talent laden Bunnies had their ace on the mound for the final game vs the Knights, the Knights countered with power lefty Jordan Kritsch.

The 1st inning brought out the jitters in the Knights defence; committing 2 errors after the 1st two runners reached base on singles. The Bunnies would only score 1 run however as Kritsch struck out the side with some nasty curve balls and fast balls that the Brockville hitters could not catch up with. The Brockville pitcher, Jerry Coleman appeared equally as powerful, striking out 6 Ottawa batters in 3 innings. Hammond reached base in the 2nd inning on a single then stole 2nd base but would advance no further. The bottom of the 4th saw Short Stop Steve Renaud hit a one out triple to the fence, Hammond then hit his 2nd single of the game to drive in Renaud and tie the game at 1.

The 5th inning went scoreless with the pitchers again dominating the batters, extraordinary defence was on display as well, Knights 2nd baseman Harding displayed his exceptional defensive skills throwing out 2 of the Bunnies runners on hard hit ground balls in the top of the 5th. In the bottom of the 6th inning, Hammond drew a one out walk then Hoppner hit a double, then with runners on 2nd and 3rd, McIntyre hit a sac fly to left field to cash in Hammond tagging from 3rd base, Herback kept the ball rolling smacking a double to score Hoppner from 2nd base then Carpenter hit a single to cash in Herback, make the score 4-1 Knights after 6 innings of play. Kritsch then dominated the Brockville hitters in the top of the 7th forcing a ground out then striking out the next 2 batters to pick up the win and the Championship trophy for the Knights.

Evan Hammond picked up the MVP honours going 5 for 8 (.625) picking up 6 RBIs with 3 stolen bases and scoring 3 runs in 3 games.

The Knights head to New Hampshire next weekend to compete in the "Storm Wood-bat Tournament".