In baseball parlance, July and August represent the dog days of summer.
In keeping with the canine theme, the Sudbury U18 Voyageurs hit a greyhound-like pace over the course of the final stretch of their season and heading home.
Beginning with a tournament win at the Pastime University of Notre Dame - The Best of the Great Lakes event in early July, the local squad strung together a truly memorable run of their best baseball, certainly of the summer - and possibly in years.
A towering home run blast in the bottom of the sixth inning in the finale versus Canes Great Lakes (Indiana) from Ethan Thompson sparked a rally that would lead to a 9-6 win as the Voyageurs completed a five game winning streak at Frank Eck Stadium.
"The difference between that weekend and weekends previous was the compete factor that we had," suggested Sudbury head coach Parker Savard. "From that point on, there was never a thought that we were out of any game."
Two weeks later, the U18 Voyageurs attended the mega-event that is the Motor City Classic, with 150 teams assembled - in the 17/18 boys division alone. Continuing their winning ways, the local lads made it through to the top 16, falling in a quarter-final battle on Sunday morning.
All of the above served as a prelude to the PBLO (Premier Baseball League of Ontario) Championship weekend where the northern Ontario entry overcame an opening game 4-2 loss to the Oshawa Legionaires, reeling off five consecutive victories, the final two against Oshawa to earn the league title.
Coming off a great outing in the final game in Detroit, pitcher Evan Ouimet earned the opening game start on playoff weekend, pitching well enough to keep his teammates in a game in which run support was sorely lacking.
A back and forth affair in game two saw the Voyageurs trailing the Pickering Prospects 7-6 entering the bottom of sixth when Ethan Thompson worked his magic, yet again, lacing a bases loaded triple down the line as Sudbury stayed alive with a 9-7 win.
Pitching was at the forefront of a 4-3 win over the Etobicoke Rangers on Saturday as ace Will Burns went five innings, running into some trouble only in the fifth as the Voyageurs rallied from a 3-1 deficit, edging the Rangers 4-3 with A.J. Dubeau earning his first of three saves on the weekend.
On Sunday morning, the Voyageurs broke open a 2-2 deadlock with three in the bottom of six (clearly their favourite inning), making a winner of starter Brett Rienguette as Dubeau closed things off in a 5-2 win over the Kingston Ponies.
Coach Savard and company now needed to beat Oshawa in back to back games, given the double elimination format, and looked a long way from doing that when they spotted the Legionaires an early 7-0 lead early Sunday afternoon.
Thankfully, they had one bullet left in their chamber.
"They (Oshawa) had nearly nothing left for pitching," said Savard. "We knew we were going to get our chance and we better not miss - and we didn't miss."
A seven-run outburst in the top of four effectively wiped the slate clean as Dubeau tossed 5 2/3 innings in relief, allowing only two runs while also contributing nicely at the plate (3/3 - 2 runs and 2 RBIs) in a 10-9 win with the game-tying run stranded at second.
A 14-hit Sudbury attack featured a pair of safeties from each of Brody Mabbott, King Mong, Braiden Paul and Ethan Thompson, with Dubeau and Rienguette driving in two runs apiece.
Arms were feeling the strain of a very long weekend as Oshawa pulled out a 5-4 lead after four innings in the rematch with everything on the line late Sunday afternoon. Coming on in relief, Chris St Germain held the Legionaires in check (3 IP - no hits - no runs - one walk) as Sudbury rallied, yet again, scoring four times in the final two innings to pull out an 8-5 win.
"Everyone played a role and accepted a role," said Savard. "There was never a moment where they diverted from the game plan."
Rounding out the Sudbury championship winning roster are Colton Nowoselsky, Chris Kremastiotis, Chase Taylor, Desmond Gauthier, Hudson Fletcher, Johnny O'Reilly, Landen Creasey, Lucas Holmes, Konnor Chartier, Teo Landry and Muskoka Outlaws' catcher Wesley Larade (given that Sudbury carried only one catcher in the form of Colton Nowoselsky).
