Elliott: Abram, Hall, Plouffe push Ontario Black to win
Ontario Black with the Tournament 12 trophy inside the Blue Jays clubhouse. Photo: Tyler King.
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
The fourth annual Tournament 12 faded to black Monday night at the Rogers Centre ... Ontario Black.
An Ontario team won for the first time beating BC Orange 6-3.
For the winners RHP Ben Abram (Georgetown, Ont. Ontario Terriers) worked three scoreless entering when the score was tied, RF Adam Plouffe (Toronto, Ont. Toronto Mets) hit an inside-the-park homer and 2B Leo Markotic (Georgetown, Ont. Toronto Mets) had a pair of hits and knocked in two runs.
Anyone else contribute?
Oh yeah, Ontario Black had this shortstop ... you may hear his name again ... and again ... and barring injury, you will hear it early on draft day next June:
Adam Hall (London, Ont. Great Lake Canadians) won the MVP award hitting .444 (8-for-18) knocking in a run and stealing two bases in the finale, giving him eight for the tourney.
And his most important dash may have been in the sixth inning after stealing third. Ontario Black had runners on the corners when Tyrell Hebert (Hamilton, Great Lake Canadians) hit a comebacker to Jack DeCooman (Vancouver, BC, North Shore Twins). After knocking the ball down, the lefty threw home to C Noah Or (Richmond, BC, North Delta Blue Jays) who caught the ball as Hall approached.
Hall put on the breaks a few feet from home plate. Or had him in a rundown and began chasing Hall to third base.
“I don’t know what happens if we get the out there,” said BC shortstop Jason Willow, “then it’s two out, who knows.”
Except Hall, who ran a 6.58 60 on scout day, had a small head start and was being chased by Or, a 7.1 runner in his uniform. This race was on and Or was sporting his catcher’s leg guards and chest pad. Hall dove head first into third, Or dove for Hall’s feet and third base ump Cameron Lyons, Canada’s No. 1 arbiter, was Cameron on the spot to rule Hall safe.
“Wait until I see some of our guys after watching this kid for five days,” said a member of the Blue Jays alumni, “he didn’t drive the ball maybe as well as he can, but he can play his position. He has a plus arm and made all the plays. He has plus speed and stole bases. There is no way that we can pass on a good looking kid like this.
“He has a 60 (on a 20-to-80 scale) arm, that’s major league. He’ll steal 30 bases a season. No way can we pass him up.”
Hall is currently ranked No. 22 on the Perfect Game Scouting Service top 500 high school prospects in North America. In the June draft the Blue Jays watched 11 Canadians selected -- Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, Ont.) was chosen eighth over-all by the San Diego Padres before the Jays turn came. Toronto chose OF Clayton Keyes (Calgary, Alta. Okotoks Dawgs) in the 17th round as its first Canadian. This was despite the fact Keyes had decided he was returning to high school this September.
Hall has a scholarship to Texas A&M and is a member of the Canadian Junior National Team.
“Adam is one of the biggest threats I’ve seen in the Canadian high school scene in a long time,” said BC coach Corey Eckstein, who is also a Kansas City Royals scout. “His speed is game changing. He shows flashes of power at the plate but is just so consistent with how he grinds out at bats. He has above average arm strength and creates angles to baseballs that most high school infielders are not able to do.
“He might receive some slack about his attitude at times, but I wouldn’t change it one bit. I wish more kids cared about the game as much as he does.”
When Hall arrived Thursday on scout day he was approached by Hall of Fame father Sandy Alomar, who asked are you “controlling your emotions this year?”
“I am ... try ... ing,” Hall is reported to have said.
“Best answer of the tournament, he answered through clenched teeth,” said one observer.
Ontario Black with commissioner Robbie Alomar on the Rogers Centre carpet ...
* * *
Abram was like a pitching machine and Orr had emptied his pocket full of tokens into the coin slot. Strike, strike, strike ... 17 pitches, 17 strikes in three scoreless innings. That's real good, if you are scoring along at home.
He had pitched four innings Saturday allowing three runs on six hits and one walk as Ontario Black lost 4-3 to BC Orange in pool play. So he was working on one day’s rest.
“I knew I would be pitching, I didn’t know when, I was a little tender,” said Abram. RHP Griffin Hassal (Newmarket, Ont. Great Lake Canadians worked the first two scoreless innings leaving with a blister on his middle finger. Then, LHP Adam Tulloch (Collingwood, Ont, MVP Banditos) took over allowing three unearned runs in two innings.
"Most impressive thing I’ve seen this week? Probably the Atlantic lefty (Garrett Nicholson, Sydney Mines, NS, Vauxhall Academy) holding BC Orange hitless for five innings, they are a good hitting team,” said Abram. “It’s always great getting to watch Landon Leach (Pickering, Ont. Toronto Mets Ontario Green) throw. He throws gas.”
* * *
On Saturday night I was charged with editing, posting and Tweeting J.P. Antonacci’s wonderful story about Ontario Black beating Alberta Red and C Josh Naylor (Mississauga, Ont. Ontario Blue Jays) throwing out three of an attempted four base stealers.
(I can hear former Sun colleague Mike Rutsey laughing about the thought of me editing someone else’s story.)
Anyway, I posted the story and wrote the headline: Noah naylz three Alberta runners in shutout win. Noah’s brother Josh Naylor selected 12th overall in North American in 2015 is nicknamed Naylz.
Staring at the Tweet proudly it was re-Tweeted by none other than Naylz himself.
(Kids this inter web thing might catch on for immediacy.)
After the finale I told Noah about brother’s fast-on-the-draw Tweet and Noah had accomplished something his brother had not: win Tournament 12.
“He always wanted to win this, he’s all about the competition,” said Noah, who had help from baby brother Myles, who served as a bat boy for some of the games.
Naylor was hitless in the finale.
"My hitting sucked," said the athletic catcher, "he'll tease me about that."
* * *
Besides Hall’s Houdini-like escape from the rundown, BC had a tough break when Plouffe plunked a single into right. Dawson Gray dove (Langley, BC, Langley Blaze) dove for the ball, tore his right hamstring and the ball rolled all the way to the wall.
Plouffe circled the bases to score.
Estimates are that Gray, who said he heard “something pop like this” as he snapped his fingers loudly, will be lost for six weeks.
* * *
BC Orange was not as full strength since Steven Moretto (Coquitlam, BC North Shore Twins) rolled his ankle the Friday before the tournament playing football for Vancouver’s Notre Dame Jugglers. He’s a signal caller so how did the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Moretto go down? Scrambling out of the pocket? Hit from the blind side?
No, he rolled his left ankle playing safety. The two-sport star is a two-way man.
His father Rob Moretto played for the B.C. Lions as a linebacker and special teams stud from 1987-89 after playing for the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds. Steven’s brother Matt was a defensive back at UBC. And his cousin Anthony Cusati is a third-year third baseman for the T-Birds. Does recruiting Steven Moretto to UBC sound like a layup or a slam dunk to coach Chris Pritchett?
When it was pointed out that Pritchett was here watching the games, Moretto added “so was Shawn Bowman (UBC coach).”
Steven Moretto was one of the top talents with the Hastings Little League AllStars which reached the 2012 Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn.
Sounds like Moretto has made the wiser choice.
“I might be better at baseball, I love football,” he said. “I feel like baseball can take further, give me the chance to see the world.”
* * *
The most difficult task for manager Peter Orr came in the semi-final when he removed starter Noah Skirrow (Stoney Creek, Ont. Ontario Blue Jays) after Skirrow had walked Martin Vincelli-Simard (Brosiband, Que. ABC) and Marc-Antoine Tremblay (Levis, Que., ABC) leading 5-1 in the fifth against Quebec Blue.
Orr reached for the ball and Skirrow reached out and shook Orr’s hand.
“How you doing?”
“Ball, please,” Orr said.
Tyler Whalen (Hamilton, Ont. Great Lakes Canadians) came on and allowed a single to Remi Patry (Levis, Que, ABC) loading the bases. Whalen then induced a pop-up and strikeout and then Archer Brookman (Pte-Clarie, Que. ABC) smoked a sinking liner into right. Ontario Black RF Antonio Cruz (Houston, Tex. Marucci Houston) made a diving grab to kill the rally.
We had some fun with the sons of former Blue Jays OF Jose Cruz, telling Antonio how the Tournament 12 trophy was like the Stanley Cup and how each member of the winning team got to take it home for day.
"You mean it will go to Houston?"
Yep and then one day it will go to Uxbridge (home of pitching coach Chris Begg) who was on Orr's staff with Chris Robinson and Adam Stern.
But we don't really think Antonio fell for it.
Trei, a year older, well we're not so sure.
"Really?" when asked, "can he take it to school?"
Sure, long as pop pays UPS to ship it from the Rogers Centre.
* * *
Orr said the tough part was making sure “everyone on his lineup card got into the game and who was going in had time to get ready,”
The first-time manager had weapons at his disposal in Hall and Naylor.
“Hall’s legs are a plus,” said Orr, “Behind the plate Naylor was amazing. I’ve never seen a guy at that age catch so well. And you know with young guys like this all they’re going to do is get better.”
And Ontario Black inside the Blue Jays clubhouse
* * *
Daniel Carinci (Ajax, Ont. Toronto Mets) bounced out with Hall scoring and after a walk Markotic doubled to right.
Ontario Black went up 3-0 on the Plouffe homer, the Hall grounder and an error,
BC came back to tie an inning later when the leadoff man reached on an error and Michael Stovman (Maple Ridge, BC, Langley Blaze) singled and Or walked to load the bases. Owen Napieralski (Vancouver, Whalley Chiefs) walked to force in a run, a double play ball and a wild pitch evened the score.
Elsewhere: Alexis Brudnicki Tournament 12 crowns new winner .... Nick Ashbourne: Adam Hall lives up to hype .... Howard Tsumura in the Vancouver Province on two-sport star Steven Moretto