The weather could not have been much better – and based on the defensive gems that were being turned in on the diamonds, neither could the baseball as 11 teams gathered at the Terry Fox Sports Complex to battle it out for Baseball Ontario U11 A provincial supremacy this weekend.
For as much as there was a great deal of drama in several encounters, the Clinton Mustangs left little doubt as to who the number one team was once the dust settled early Sunday evening. Six straight victories, including a 12-5 triumph in the final over the Saugeen Shores Sting served to prove the mettle of the team from the pretty little town located some 20 kms south of Goderich on the shores of Lake Huron.
Having worked with the bulk of this crew since their first swings at a t-ball stand, coach Curtis Meyers knew well the talent at his disposal. But in the shortened tournament environment where limited pitch counts require as much of a strategic approach as any other single aspect of the game, a little bit of Lady Luck on your side never hurts.
“We could not have had things work out any better for us,” said Meyers, his team having beaten, in succession, the Chatham Diamonds, the Valley East Jr Voyageurs (a 9-6 win, their closest game of the tournament), the Delaware River Cats, the Saugeen Shores Sting and the Blenheim Bees, before besting the Sting a second time.
“We are a deep team with 13 players,” Meyers continued. “That kind of hinders you a little with your batting order and subs, but it really helped us this weekend. We were able to get to our final three games without having used any of our top three pitchers. We had some kids who did not pitch a lot for us this year who came up absolutely huge this weekend.”
“They ate up some innings and that was massive for our team. It wasn’t even that we managed it well; things just worked out in our favour.”
Well that – and a boatload of talent.
A well above average infield crew was anchored by shortstop Elliot Vanderloo, an 11 year-old who made far-from-routine plays look easy. “There’s a lot of action at shortstop, which I like,” said the young man who follows in his brother’s footsteps, the elder Vanderloo having claimed an all-Ontario baseball title last year in the U13 division.
“I just focus on fielding the ball and making a good throw. But having the team behind you is a big thing too.”
In the convoluted draw that is a double-knockout format for 11 entries, Vanderloo pointed to the early Sunday battle as being particularly key for his team. “The undefeated game against Port Elgin (Saugeen Shores) this morning really helped our cause,” he said. “Winning that and coming into the final undefeated means they would have to beat us twice.”
“That was big.”
The landscape of minor baseball in Clinton sees youngsters playing on both house-league and rep teams, simultaneously, ostensibly due to numbers. That template, however, would limit this edition of the Mustangs to just 13 regular season games and one tournament prior to heading north – not a major concern for coach Meyers, once his players were in the proper head-space.
“We have a lot of really, really good athletes that we needed to make sure realized that they are also really good baseball players,” he said. “They had to believe in themselves. They had to work hard on certain aspects of the game – and being aggressive at the plate was really important to us, but this is a great group of kids to work with, a great group of parents.”
As for the local crew, it was nothing if not a wildly exciting weekend.
The Jr Voyageurs opened play with a 6-3 win over the Owen Sound Jr Baysox, falling to the eventual champions (Clinton) the next morning (9-6).
Needing a win to move on to Sunday, Valley East built up a comfortable 7-1 lead over the Thorold A’s before the latter scored four big runs in the bottom of the sixth.
Kian MacLellan countered with a key two-run single in T7 and pitcher Jaxon Wicklander did the rest, going three up three down for the save and a 10-5 win. A high scoring affair Sunday morning would see the host team eliminate the Delaware River Cats 16-9, setting up a semi-final matchup with Saugeen Shores.
Down 7-2 early on, the Jr Voyageurs rallied in this punch / counter-punch affair as the Sting held an 11-7 lead heading to the final inning. The locals were not done yet, plating three runs and loading the bases with two out and slugger Maverick Spadafora coming to the plate.
The local multi-sport talent belted a ball to the gap only to see Roy Robinson extend full length, in full flight, to register the final out in a manner that drew applause from parents of both teams.
For as much as the drama ensures that family and fans are sitting on pins and needles, the kids seem to handle it all pretty much in stride. “I’m kind of nervous before a game but you have to try and clear all the nerves and then just focus on the ball,” noted Isaac Mussen, an 11 year-old grade six student at St James Elementary in Lively.
While opposing pitchers managed to keep the smooth-gloved Jr Voyageurs' second baseman in check for the first two games of the weekend, Mussen helped set the tone in game three, stepping to the plate as the second batter of the game and a runner on first.
“I hit it right between the right fielder and the centre fielder,” Mussen noted of his two-run dinger versus Thorold. “I didn’t have a hit the first two games but I knew that I could do it – and I did it.”
In a weekend filled with great plays in the field, Valley East pitcher Maverick Spadafore preceded the beauty by Robinson, snaring a line drive right back up the middle an inning or two earlier.
Rounding out the Valley East U11 Jr Voyageurs roster are Anjolie Gauthier, Bryce Bomhower, Emerson Clark, George Douglas, Logan Leduc, Luc Legault-Corriveau, Maks Lafond and Yanik Larouche.
And finally, in other big local baseball news, catcher Gabriel Larocque has made it official, confirming his 2026-2027 NCAA commitment to the University of San Francisco Dons of the West Coast Conference.
