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D 2 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday August 7, 2002 Oakville first in round robin, play national semi Thursday The Oakville Little League junior baseball team (14 year olds) has made the national semifinals on Thursday in Ottawa. If they win, the two-time defending Ontario provincial champion Oakville team will play the national championship game Friday, with the winner mov ing on to the Little League Junior World Series in Tavlor, Michigan, August 11-18. Oakville closed out preliminary round play on Tuesday with a 1-0 win over the British Columbia representative. It gave Oakville first place w ith a sizzling 4-1 record. Oakville also defeated Atlantic Region 6-5, Prairie Region 6-5, Quebec 5-2 and lost to host East Nepean 7-5. Players are as follows: Mark Keil, Brendon Skeetes, Zack Dickson, Scott DeGroot, Roger Lam bert, Jason Tuske, Paul Jurgaitis, Travis Sm ith, Jordan D icarlo, Sergio Lujan, Kris Bonnell and Daniel Hanley. Dave Downer is the head coach, assisted by Bruno Jurgaitis and Duke Dickson. A's miracle comeback stops one run short of a trip to the national championships A Cinderella com eback by the major bantam Oakville A's fell just short at the national district qualifier this past weekend in Scarborough. Facing elimination in five consecu tive games, the A's finally succumbed to the Mississauga North All-Stars 5-4 in a championship game thriller. The A's were competing in an elimi nation tournament against the top 15 major bantam baseball teams in Ontario, for the right to represent the district at the upcoming national championships to be held in Windsor later in August. Perennial foes such as Thornhill, the Mississauga Majors, Guelph and the powerful Brampton Red Sox all took part. The A's lost their opening game 4-0 to Newmarket, and had to run the table the rest of the way in the double knockout event to get to the champi onship game -- and run the table they did. First, they defeated traditional rival High Park 6-1, keyed by Andrew Bartucci's three-run triple, run-scoring doubles by Thom as Karthaus and Robert MacKay, and the stellar pitch ing of starter Anthony Amone. Next was a victory over the elite squad from London. The 8-6 victory saw strong starting pitching from Conrad Bach, and significant offensive contributions from MacKay and Brad Leeming. Russell Gilroy earned his second save of the tournament, while Karthaus saw his tournament streak of five con secutive hits finally come to a halt. Against a tough Pickering squad, the A's jumped out to a 2-0 lead, then saw their opponents tie the game late to send it into extra innings. In the 11th inning, Bach socked a two-run triple to ice the victory. Chris Baluschak knocked in two runs and M acKay added an RBI. M ackay pitched four scoreless innings to start the game, and Gilroy was brilliant in relief, not allowing a run in 4 1/3 innings to earn the victory. The victory over Pickering pushed the surging A's to the final four in the tournament. In the semifinals, they faced an out standing Burlington Bulls club which had earlier won three games by shutouts in the tournament. For the second time in the tourna ment, Baluschak led off the game with a triple, and the A's jumped to an early lead. Amone contributed two hits and 3 RBI's in the contest, and Bartucci chipped in with two run-producing hits to pave the way to a 5-2 victory. Bartucci pitched 6 1/3 strong innings, despite competing with strained ankle ligaments suffered earlier in the tour nament. The victory placed the Oakville club in the tournament final against Mississauga North, a club the A's had defeated in the title game of a major tournament in Stratford earlier this summer. The A's jum ped jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, with Brad Leeming knocking home two with a clutch twoout single. The A's held on until the 5th inning, when the North squad pushed across four runs to tie the game. Mississauga added a run in the 6th to take a 5-4 lead. In the final frame, Baluschak earned a lead-off walk, and Robbie Bernard's clutch single pushed Baluschak to third, but the A's couldn't push across the run they needed to tie the game. The Oakville club deserved a better fate, perhaps. They earned a silver medal against the toughest competition in the province -- perhaps in the coun try -- at the 15 year-old major bantam level. They came within a whisker of win ning the event, and walked away with a more than deserved silver medal for their efforts -- but what they really wanted was a shot at the national championship. This is a club that has really bonded in recent weeks, led in part by catcher Jesse Chaisson, who was behind the plate for all but three innings in the gruelling, four-day marathon elimina tion tournament. Every player on the club made sig nificant contributions at various times in the tournam ent, including Joel Patterson, Chris Langlois, Jesse Mejaski and Kevin Crompton. Even in defeat, this is a club that left nothing on the field. They gave every thing they had, and then some. The A's will now reload and aim to earn a berth in the Ontario Baseball Association (OBA) provincial champi onships. National record and a medal for Pomeroy in Manchester Oakville's Laura Pomeroy had a great Commonwealth Games in Manchester with a medal and a new Canadian record. The Q.E. Park high school grad helped Canada to a bronze medal in the 4x100m freestyle in a time of 3:45.33. Australia won the gold and England was second. Pomeroy also set a Canadian record in the 50m freestyle with a time of 25.85s. That beat the old record, held by Laura Nicholls, by 1/100th of a sec ond. Pomeroy placed fifth in the final in that race. As recounted in the Oakville Beaver, the Oakville Aquatic Club swimmer also competed in the 100m freestyle, placing sixth in her semifinal heat. ANDREW HURD Sydney 2000 Olympic veteran Andrew Hurd, an Oakville Trafalgar High School grad, finished fifth in the 1500m in the finals in a time of 15:14.37s. The race was won by defending champion Grant Hackett of Australia who is also the reigning Olympic, world and Pan Pacific champion. His time was 14:54.29. Kids Guide f a Bronte Village Childcare | | ^ 126 East Street, Oakville Focus o n F a m ily A Guide to businesses and services for today's kids SO CCER UJO RLD Soccer World S occer W orld is y o u r com plete o n e-sto p soccer store. O ur k n o w led g eab le staff w ill be very helpful in fitting you or your soccer p lay er from o u r top selection o f shoes, shin pads, balls, apparel - w h atev er you need to play, or coach the beautiful gam e. E x cellen t service is our " goal" . W e are happy to take orders to m eet your needs. 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