LORILEE YVETTE, Special to The Standard
SCUGOG: The Cambridge Coyotes hosted their annual John Cross Memorial Tournament over Father’s Day weekend, June 17-19th. With a five-game guarantee, all teams took the field for round-robin play Friday and Saturday, with playoffs set for Sunday.
Port Perry was represented in the U13 and U19 divisions.
The U19 McLellan team came out strong, defeating Halton Hawks, Lucan, London Lightning, and Halton UTM in round-robin play. Seeding first in the U19 division, the Port Perry Angels went into the playoffs but came up short against Lucan, sending them into the bronze medal game. With home runs by Serenity and Eiblish and a superb catch in left field by Taylor, the Port Perry Angels U19 team won the bronze medal, defeating the UTM Morriston team 8-4.
In the U13 division, the Port Perry Angels RED team was slow to start, losing to the Milton Bats Purple 6-0 Friday evening. Saturday, they defeated the Cambridge Coyotes 7-4, tied the Waterloo Black team 8-8, and with an unbelievable comeback in the last inning, defeated St. George 11-10! With a record of 2-1-1 in round-robin play, the RED team placed fifth overall and headed into playoffs, late Sunday morning. First up were the ninth-seeded Mississauga North Tigers in the quarterfinals. With the Angels’ bats exploding in the third inning and scoring 12 runs, they beat the Tigers 15-4, to move onto the semi-final game. Facing the Milton Bats Purple team again, the Angels were out for a little redemption, and boy did they get it! They scored runs consistently through five innings and shut down Milton in three innings. The PPA RED team defeated the Bats 12-5, to advance to the gold medal game against the Halton Hawks Sr. Team!
After knocking out the Halton Hawks in the semi-finals, at the Barrie Bash the previous weekend, this Hawks team was out for blood! The Angels came out with two runs in their first at-bat, but Halton also followed it up with two runs. Both teams were held to no runs in the second inning. Port got back on the board with one run in the third, but Halton fought back and scored four runs taking a 6-3 lead.
Fighting back, the Angels scored two more runs in the fourth inning and played some tight defence, to close the gap 6-5. In the fifth inning, the Angels scored two more runs to take a 7-6 lead, only for Halton to tie it up in their at-bat! In the sixth inning, the Angels knocked in two more runs, taking a 9-7 lead, and held the Hawks to one run, holding onto a one-run lead going into the last inning.
In their last at-bats, the Angels were shut down by some strong pitching, and with the fans on the edge of their seats, the Halton Hawks hit three solid singles and scored two runs to win the game 10-9.
Congratulations to the PPA RED team for winning their third silver medal in back to back to back weekend tournaments! This U13 team is really something to talk about.
A special mention to Ella P. for receiving the Kayla Baker award, for showing great sportsman’s like conduct this weekend.
And a huge shout out to coaches Wendy, Pippa, Josh, and Alyssa for their strategic gameplay, for pushing these girls to reach their potential, and for their encouragement and words of wisdom.
Next up is the PanJam tournament, on July 8-10th in Whitby! Go Angels Go!