Season opens for Bolton Braves midget baseball team

The Bolton Braves midget baseball team, sponsored by Wanderosa Wood Products, hosted the Newmarket Hawks in the season opening May 7.

The Bolton team is likely to come up against tough challenges this year being a very young team using a mixture of minor and first year midget aged players and having no second year midget players on the roster.

Chad Manning was the first pitcher to take the mound and was very effective allowing only one run in three innings pitched. Luke Ratcliffe took over pitching duties in the 4th inning and after two more Newmarket runners reached home plate in the 5th was able to shut down the opposition scoring, with the help of his fielders, until the 8th inning.

The Braves were held scoreless until the 5th inning when three runs were scored by Ratcliffe, Jeff Vickers and Cody Renzetti with the RBIs going to Andrew Reid, Adam MacDonald and Jeff Thompson.

Defensive errors and walks caused problems for the Braves in the 8th inning with Ratcliffe back on the mound. With bases loaded and two out, Newmarket connected with a triple scoring 3 runners. MacDonald went in to finish the inning on the mound and threw 2 pitches to end the inning with a pop-up to Curtis Braun at shortstop.

After the big Newmarket hit, the Braves were behind four runs going into the bottom of the inning and came up just short. Three runs were scored by Will Krisman, Manning and Braun with RBIs going to Vickers and Renzetti. The game ended with a close score of 7-6 in favour of Newmarket.

Two nights later the Bolton Braves took a visit to Aurora to face a team full of many older, more experienced baseball players. This team's roster was mainly made up of second year midgets and was a quite polished team. The Bolton pitching arms and fielders were tested in this 14-2 trouncing by Aurora with many long balls put into play.

Pitching duties were shared by Renzetti and Reid for the first three innings and despite valiant efforts by the fielders, 14 Aurora players crossed home plate. In the third inning with one out and Patrick Oatway on base, Manning reached base on a single and Ratcliffe followed with a fielder's choice. Next, Thompson connected with a two out triple bringing both runners home. This would prove to be the only Braves scoring in the game.

Braun pitched in the 4th inning and was able to hold off the scoring allowing only one walk and forced popups to be fielded by the team. Unfortunately the mercy rule was in effect and the game finished at the middle of the 5th inning with the greater than 10-run difference.

Other players on this year's team include Vince Capitano, Aiden Long and Jonathan Conte. The coaching staff is made up of Brian Braun, Dan MacDonald, Dale Reid and Mike Renzetti.

The team would like to thank Wanderosa Wood Products for sponsoring them. The home games are held Monday evenings at 7:30 p.m. at the North Hill Diamond #1. Please feel free to come out and cheer the team on.