Where is that 5-run HR when you need it???

In yesterday’s Blue Jays game, the Jays were down by four runs in the bottom of the ninth inning and really needed a 5 run home run to win. Or so the batters thought. Leading off the last inning, needing five runs, the Blue Jays batters were swinging for the fences instead of trying for line drives and solid grounders. You know, getting runners on base before the ever popular home run. As I watched this unfold, I couldn’t refrain from growing irritated. There is no such thing as a five run home run so why the heck were the batters swinging for home runs? In the end they didn’t get the homerun they were looking for and ended up going down in order for the 5-1 loss. For the Jays to win their batters need to be smarter than that. But then again, the GM has already given up on them so why should they try? Hitting .300 on a shit team the entire MLB ignores doesn’t exactly draw the big contracts, especially for these over the hill players.

Other OLA Playoffs

The OLA Senior B is into their second round, the semi finals. The Owen Sound Woodsmen lost their first game of the playoffs in game one against the Wellington Aces 6-4 but recovered to beat them in game two 7-4 at home. Owen Sound swept the Mohawk Stars in two games to advance to the semis against the division leading Aces. The Brooklin Merchants has a two games to none strangle hold on their semi final series with the Norwood Nitro’s. The potential series clinching game goes on Sunday in Brooklin at 7:00 PM. Norwood took three games to defeat the Ajax-Pickering Rock in their quarter final series.

The OLA Junior A playoffs began Monday July 14 with the four higher seeds winning. Since then most series have been a see-saw battle with the teams trading wins. Two of the four series have been decided while the remaining two are one game away from ending. The St Catharines Athletics were the first team to advance to the semi finals when they defeated the Kitchener-Waterloo Braves 8-4 two days ago to win the series in five games. Last night the Six Nations Arrows joined the Athletics in the semi finals as they dealt the Peterborough Lakers a 15-12 loss in game six. The Burlington Chiefs were on the brink of winning the series over the Akwesasne Indians when an appeal launched by the Indians was decided in their favour forcing the previously forfeited game to be replayed (the Indians were charged with playing two illegal players). Burlington still holds a three games to two lead in the series and can end it tonight at home. In the fourth series, the regular season leading Orangeville Northmen can advance tonight in Brampton with a win against the Excelsiors.

The Clarington Green Gaels took the Halton Hills Bulldogs to five games before losing out in the OLA Junior B quarterfinals. Halton Hills will face the Mimico Mountaineers in the semi finals while the Elora Mohawks will face the Six Nations Rebels in the other semi final match up. Mimico defeated Oakville and Six Nations defeated the Windsor AKO Fratmen three games to one to advance while Elora swept Orangeville in three games to earn a spot in the semis. The lone loss suffered by the Rebels was their first loss in a year. Six Nations won 42 straight games after a July 15, 2007 loss, including a perfect 20-0-0 regular season and a first round playoff sweep of Wallaceburg. Both semi final series get underway Friday night.

MSL Playoffs Begin

The Major Series Lacrosse playoffs got underway last night as the Six Nations Chiefs traveled to Akwesasne to take on the St Regis Indians. Fighting back from a 10-6 deficit after forty minutes, the Six Nations Chiefs went on a run of five straight goals in the final period to defeat the third seed Indians. Craig Point scored the game winner with just over four minutes remaining in the third period on his second goal of the game. Cory Bomberry, Roger Vyse and Delby Powless also netted two goals for the Chiefs. Mark Steenhuis led all scorers with two goals and three assists while John Tavares (winner of the MSL scoring title) scored three goals and added one assist in the loss. The next game is tonight in Akwesasne.

The other quarter final series gets underway tonight as the Kitchener-Waterloo Kodiaks travel down the 401 to Whitby to face off against the Brooklin Redmen. These two teams battled each other tough in three games during the regular season and both finished with 14 points. After they split the first two games, each team winning by a five goal margin, Brooklin won the third match up 12-9 in overtime for the advantage. Game two goes tomorrow night in K-W and game three goes Saturday back in Whitby. If necessary, game 4 is in K-W Sunday and the fifth game is next Tuesday in Whitby.

The top two teams in the regular season get a bye for the first round. Brampton led the league with 29 points (14-3-1) while Peterborough came back from a 2-4 start to finish in second place with 25 points (12-5-1).

Hometown Hero an All-Star

New England Revolution and MLS all-star team coach, Steve Nicol, chose Jim Brennan from the Toronto FC to be one of the reserves for the All-Star game to be played next Thursday at BMO Field in Toronto. With this selection, the first member of Toronto FC can also claim to be the first Toronto FC player to be selected for an all-star team. The all-star team coach selected five reserves for the game while the commissioner selected an additional two. One of the commissioner's picks was Scarborough, ON native Dwayne De Rosario of the Houston Dynamo. While Brennan's selection marks his first selection to an all-star team, De Rosario will suit up for his third straight. The MLS All-Stars will take on the West Ham United club on July 24 at 7:00 PM Eastern. The game will air on ESPN, Telefutura, and CBC.

It's Playoff Time!

OLA Senior B

Despite scoring 7 more goals then they did in the opening game, the Mohawk Stars were unable to stop the Woodsmen attack and lost 16-11 in what turned out to be the last game of the season for the Stars. Owen Sound won game one in convincing fashion 17-4, and with the win in game two, they advance to the semi-finals. In the East quarter final, the Norwood Nitros struck first, winning game one 13-5 at home, but was unable to complete the two game sweep of the Ajax Pickering Rock by losing in Pickering 15-13 on Sunday evening. The third and deciding game goes Wednesday evening in Norwood. Game time is 8:30 PM.

OLA Junior A

The OLA Junior A regular season has now ended and the quarterfinals are set to begin tonight. The top team in the league, the Orangeville Northmen (19-3-0) faces off against the Brampton Excelsiors; the defending champion Six Nations Arrows face the Peterborough Lakers; St. Catharines Athletics host the Kitchener-Waterloo Braves; and the fourth place Akwesasne Indians look to end the Burlington Chiefs season. All four series begin tonight and, if any goes a full seven games, will end next Thursday.

OLA Junior B

The second round of the OLA Junior B playoffs is two games old with one exception; the Six Nations Rebels has a one game to none lead over the Windsor AKO Fratmen. Elora is up 2-0 on Orangeville while the other two series (Mimico vs. Oakville and Halton Hills vs. Clarington) are tied at one game a piece. The fifth and deciding games in this round is scheduled for July 20 for two series and 21 for the other two series.

Major Series Lacrosse

After a commanding 9-5 victory over the St. Regis Indians Saturday evening, the Brampton Excelsiors have clinched top seed in the MSL with a week left in the season. The defending Mann Cup champion Peterborough Lakers have taken over second spot in the standings while the Indians have fallen into third. The young Brooklin Redmen team have come together nicely winning 4 of their last five games and have jumped into sole possession of fourth place. The KW Kodiaks are in fifth followed by the Barrie Lakeshores while Six Nations is currently in last place sitting one point behind Barrie for the last playoff spot. Other than the top three teams, the playoff picture is still unclear.

Perfection Results in Gold

With another perfect tournament, the team from the United States leaves Coquitlam, BC and the 2008 ILF U19 World Lacrosse Championships with their sixth consecutive championship. On Saturday afternoon, the US team downed team Canada 19-12 to extend their tournament perfect streak to 36 games. It was a well balanced attack from the US as six players recorded three points each including Nicholas Elsmo, Dean Gibbons, and Craig Dowd recording hat tricks. Adam Jones led the Canadians with five goals in the loss.

Earlier in the day, the Iroquois Nationals defeated the team from England 19-10 to earn the bronze medal. Emmett Printup led all scorers with a double hat trick with one assist while Lyle Thompson, Peter Jacobs and Miles Thompson each scored a single hat trick. Zac Guy from the English side also recorded a trick while teammates Sam Russell and Greg Rowlinson scored two goals each in a losing cause.

Three of the five player awards went to the gold medal team while the other two award winners call Canada home. The team USA winners were Peter Fallon, Top Defenseman; Craig Dowd, Top Attacker; and Adam Ghitelman, top goaltender. Adam Jones from Canada won the other two awards for the top midfielder and the tournament MVP.

OLA Sr. B Playoffs to Begin Friday

At the end of the regular season the Brooklin Merchants and the Wellington Aces sit atop their respective divisions. Brooklin finished with an 8-6-0 record to lead the East while Wellington topped the West with an 11-2-1 record for the best in the league. These two teams get a bye in the first round of playoffs while they await the winners of the quarterfinal series.

The Norwood Nitros finished second behind Brooklin with a 6-6-2 record while the Ajax-Pickering Rock rounded out the East at 5-9-0. This series starts in Norwood on Friday evening, goes to Pickering Sunday evening and returns to Norwood Wednesday evening if necessary. Over in the West, the host of last year’s President’s Cup, the Owen Sound Woodsmen, finished in second spot with an 8-6-0 record while the Mohawk Stars came in last with a 2-11-1 record. This series is scheduled to take place this weekend starting with a Friday evening game in Owen Sound followed by Saturday evening at Mohawk then returning to Owen Sound Sunday if necessary. Teams are playing for the chance to hoist the Clare Levack Memorial Trophy (pictured below) as well as advancing to the national title tournament in Sherwood Park, Alberta to play for the President's Cup.

U.S. Still Dominates on the Field

The under 19 men’s lacrosse team from the United States recovered from a seven goal deficit in the fourth quarter of their game against the Canadians to beat the host country 16-15 in overtime in their fourth round robin game at the 2008 U19 ILF World Lacrosse Championships. With their 24-4 victory over England in their last round robin game, the United States’ perfect record in U19 world lacrosse championships extends to an impressive 34-0.

This year’s tournament is number six and is being held in Coquitlam, British Columbia. Previous years were 1988 in Adelaide, Australia (US defeated Australia); 1992 in Long Island, New York (US defeated Australia); 1996 in Tokyo, Japan (US defeated Australia); 1999 back in Adelaide, Australia (US defeated Canada); and 2003 in Baltimore, Maryland (US defeated Canada).

Canada finished the round robin at 4-1 and will play the Iroquois Nationals in their semi-final game tomorrow after the Nationals defeated the second place team from the Red division 28-2 last night. The US will face England in their semi-final tomorrow after England downed the top seed in the Red division 16-2 yesterday afternoon. In round robin play, Canada defeated the Iroquois team 15-12 so this semi-final should be another great match between two talented teams. US destroyed England 24-4 in their round robin meeting so it looks like the US will be playing for their 36th straight tournament win and sixth consecutive championship. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday July 12 at 2:30 PM Pacific.