Markham
August 27, 2008 01:35 PM
Mike Hayakawa, Staff Writer
The Markham Mariners advanced to the 52nd annual Lions-Canadian National Exhibition Peewee Baseball Tournament final after defeating Hamilton 6-5 in their semifinal game in Toronto Tuesday.
Trailing 5-0 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, the Mariners mounted their comeback by scoring three runs.
Feeding off of that momentum, the Mariners completed their comeback in the sixth inning by scoring three more runs to take the lead for good.Supplying key hits in that frame were: Christian Envidia, Danny Sutharnum and Tarun Malik.
Sutharnum was also the winning pitcher in relief of starter Mark Davidson.
Mariners head coach Brian Harvey acknowledged his club’s run to the final came as a bit of a surprise since they experienced an average regular season.
Making the feat even more remarkable is that his club is a AA entry facing teams in the tournament that are AAA calibre.
“We’ve had a rather average regular season going 7-10 in league play. But the boys seem to be playing well at this time of the year. We’re getting good pitching and clutch hitting. The kids are excited to be going to the final,” he said.
The Mariners will face Brampton, who won their semfinal game 6-5 over North York earlier in the day, in Thursday’s final at the CNE at 6 p.m.
Harvey noted his club played Brampton earlier in a tournament in Sarnia and defeated them.
This, he hopes, will bode well when they meet.
“But with 13 year olds you never know. Hopefully they will be confident, but not overconfident,” he said.