After capturing silver medals at the 2012 Ontario Baseball Association (OBA) “A” Championships, the Sudbury Bantam rep team decided to raise the bar entering both the 2013 season, as well as the Midget ranks.

Newly christened with the re-birth of the Sudbury Shamrocks nickname, and with a couple of new additions to the coaching staff, the local squad decided to test their luck at an early season “AA” tournament in Vaughan.

While the experiment did not produce a victory, the Shamrocks showed improvement in each and every game, providing team management with an excellent snapshot of where their efforts need to be focused in order to move the Midget Shamrocks forward this summer.

The team opened play against Walker Homesites of Windsor, not at all ready for the offensive barrage their southwestern Ontario counterparts were about to impart upon them. Starter Ryan Faubert pitched well enough out of the gate, despite being touched for three runs in the early going.

While the Sudbury offense began to get acclimatized to the level of pitching they were facing, the northern lads were unable to plate a run in a five-inning loss to Windsor. Shamrocks’ coaches took solace in the quality of pitching from Faubert, as well as relievers Josh Favaro and Christian Lariviere.

The locals found out quickly that the batting prowess of the Windsor crew was not an anomaly as Brampton struck for five runs in the opening two innings of Sudbury’s second game. Settling down gradually, the Shamrocks scored five runs of their own, sparked in large part by a bases-clearing triple from Lariviere.

In the end, the Brampton bats were too much to handle as the northern lads fell to 0-2. Facing North York under sunny skies in their tournament finale, Sudbury began showing signs of promise. A slow start would dig the locals a hole, surrendering five runs in the early going before pitcher Phil Butler tossed four strong innings for the Shamrocks.

Brody McCaffrey started the fifth inning on the mound for manager Jack Miller, allowing only one run to cross the plate. With Sudbury coach Ryan Mussen noting that greater patience could prove beneficial to his team, the Shamrocks worked deeper into the count, rewarded with a four-run outburst in the bottom of the fifth.

Sudbury would deadlock the contest at 6-6 with one more run in the sixth before Windsor counted the game winner in the seventh. In the end, the Shamrocks coaching staff would finish the weekend pleased with the team’s never-say-die attitude, as well as the pitching, in general.

The Sudbury midgets are back in action for their league opener on the weekend, facing the 2012 senior champion Laird Constructors before heading to Sault Ste Marie for tournament play on June 8th and 9th.