Ontario Blue Jays deal Glass its third straight defeat

Ontario rallied for four runs in the sixth inning and added an insurance run in the seventh to send National Amateur Baseball Federation High School World Series host E.C. Glass to a 6-3 defeat, its third straight in the tournament, Saturday afternoon on its home field.

Up until the last two frames, Amherst pickup Willie Sligh had the Hilltoppers in position to stage one of the biggest upsets of the weekend. He struck out nine Blue Jays through the first five innings and gave himself a 2-1 lead to work with by delivering a two-run double in the third.

“They had beaten Brookville 20-2 (on Friday) and Willie came out and shut them down,” Glass coach Steve Shields said. “He pitched excellent. He did a good job of changing speeds and location.”

But Mike Battochio’s solid one-out pinch-hit single, which short-hopped Glass left fielder Josh Morris, ignited the Blue Jays’ bats as Phil Diedrick and Jim Martin followed with singles, with Battoghio scoring on an error by right fielder Harrison Scharf to tie the game at 2-2.

“He got a little tired,” Shields said of Sligh. “These guys are not used to playing in the heat of the day.”

Shields called on his top pitcher, rising junior James Gaines, to try to shut the door. But after walking Robbie Richards to load the bases and set up a potential inning-ending double play, Gaines gave up a bases-clearing double to eighth batter Jordan Boston, who Sligh had struck out twice.

“Their starting pitcher threw really well, changing speeds and mixing it up,” Ontario coach Chris Darling said. “He had our guys baffled, so it was important to be able to get into their bullpen and take advantage.”

Against Brookville, the Blue Jays took advantage of a lot of free passes and miscues.

“They walked or hit us 16 times and made a lot of errors which helped us a lot,” Darling said.

Ontario features three or four players from last year’s squad that made it to the quarterfinals of the NABF High School World Series. It improved to 3-0 with the win, including one forfeit, going into Saturday night’s final game of pool play against the Long Island Titans Gold team, which dealt Glass its first loss on Friday, also by a 6-3 score.

“It’s been real good competition,” Shields said. “Both the Titans and Cardinals teams are starting all (rising) seniors. There are no seniors on our roster and we played with four ninth graders.

“They’ve played together,” he added of the powerhouses from Long Island and Canada. “Their goal is to go to tournaments and not only win games, but dominate games. We couldn’t get over the edge. We came up short but gave both of them a battle.”

Sligh battled all afternoon, both at the plate, where he collected two of Glass’ five hits, and on the rubber.

He worked out of an early jam in the first, when he struck out No. 3 batter Jevon Jacobs and clean-up hitter Nick Anton after giving up leadoff hits to Ryan Clarke and Luke Brenn, who later produced the first run on a triple and sacrifice fly, respectively, in the third.

Then in the fifth, Sligh walked ninth batter Brendon Smy, who stole the only two bases off the tournament off Glass catcher Logan Collins to reach third with one out and the Hilltoppers clinging to the 2-1 lead. Sligh proceeded to strike out Clarke and Brenn to get out of that jam, even after Collins couldn’t quite hold onto a pop foul ball near the Blue Jays dugout, giving Brenn new life.

While Sligh should shine for Amherst, Shields, who assists Kevin Brown on Glass’ varsity staff, believes Collins has a bright future with the Hilltoppers.

“Logan caught all three games and threw out six base runners, and only gave up (two) stolen bases,” Shields said. “He called all the pitches, too, in each ballgame.”

Ontario lost to the Titans Gold 8-1 in Saturday night’s game at Brookville, right after Long Island had shut out the host Bees 16-0.

The Blue Jays gave up six runs, four unearned, in the first two innings in the battle between the top two teams in their pool. They will face the Virginia Barnstormers at 9 a.m. today in the first round of single-elimination championship play.

“We’ve got our No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers we’ve held back,” assistant coach Scott Weldon said of Matt Wick, who will start today against the Barnstormers, and Dean McCrorie.

The team is experienced when it comes to tournament baseball, traveling around the country to compete in events such as the NABF World Series. It may seem like an endless summer for the boys from North of the border.

“This is our fourth tournament,” Weldon said. “We’re on the road for all of July, for the whole summer.”

Ontario Blue Jays 6, E.C. Glass 3

Ontario 001 004 1 — 6 11 1

E.C. Glass 002 000 1 — 3 5 2

W: Josh Taylor. L: Willie Sligh. S: Justin Atkinson. Records: Ontario 3-0, E.C. Glass 0-3.

Highlights: O — Ryan Clarke 2-4, 3B, run; Phil Diedrick 2-4, run, RBI; Jordan Boston 3-RBI 2B; Taylor 6 IP, 5 hits, 4 Ks, 2 BBs. ECG — Sligh 2-4, 2-RBI 2B, 5 1/3 IP, 8 hits, 9 Ks, 4 runs; Josh Morris 2 BBs, 2 runs; Harrison Scharf 1-3, run, walk, steal.