Top two junior ball teams upset
Sports
Bisons take defending champs Giants; St. B takes Orioles
Updated 1 month ago
Pembina Valley Orioles catcher Anthony Friesen and umpire Jack Mutcheson look to the field as Brendan Shearer is congratulated after scoring a run for the St. Boniface Legionaires in MJBL playoff action. The Legionaires won 11-6.
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By Donald McLeod
For The Times
The Pembina Valley Orioles had briefly kept their Manitoba Junior Baseball League playoff hopes alive Thursday.
In the completion of game three from Wednesday, the Orioles edged the St. Boniface Legionnaires 7-6 in 12 innings to close their series gap to 2 games to 1.
But then facing game four the same night, it was again close but the Legionnaires edged the Orioles 9-8 to take the series.
Meanwhile, the Altona Bisons earned their first ever berth in the MJBL final Thursday as they edged the defending champs and regular season first place Elmwood Giants 3-2 to win that series three games to one. They drove in the winning run in the eighth inning, while Mac Batchelor got the complete game win.
The final begins with Altona at St. Boniface Sunday followed by game two at Altona Monday and game three back in St. Boniface Wednesday.
No advantage
First round playoff byes appeared to have been no advantage for the top two regular season teams in the Manitoba Junior Baseball League.
Both the first place Elmwood Giants and second place Pembina Valley Orioles were facing elimination heading into the third games of their semi-finals this past Wednesday.
The Orioles and Legionaires, however, will still need an extra day to complete game three. The two teams were tied 5-5 last night in Morden when game three was suspended due to darkness in the top of the eighth inning. Game three will resume tonight (9:30 p.m.) at Whittier Park in Winnipeg.
St. Boniface leads the best-of-five two games to none. Should Pembina Valley win game three tonight, then game four would follow with game five back in Morden on Friday if necessary.
Meanwhile, the Elmwood Giants blanked Altona 1-0 in Winnipeg to cuts the Bisons lead in the best-of-five semi-final to two games to one. The Altona Bisons host the defending champions tonight for game four.
The Orioles started very slow in the opening game of their series with the St. Boniface Legionaires.
They were down 5-1 by the third inning, staged a bit of a rally then lost 11-6. And they were then edged 3-2 in the second game Monday.
Meanwhile, the Altona Bisons scored a run in the 10th inning with a Colin Waldner single bringing Brendan Wiebe home to edge the Giants 2-1 in their opening game.
Mac Batchelor started on the mound for the Bisons and allowed nine hits and struck out eight in nine innings. Waldner pitched the 10th inning and got the win.
In the second game, the Bisons scored six runs in the fourth inning to win 8-5 to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
Unearned runs early in the first game were costly to the Orioles.
The Legionaires got one run in the first when the ball got past Chris Menzies in centre field, and Brendan Shearer turned what would have been a single into a run.
The Orioles got a run in the bottom of the first with Jeff Burke's solid double driving in a run. The Legionaires scored again in the second inning with a hit to the outfield by Patrick Marion again getting past the outfield.
The Orioles seemed to be somewhat off balance throughout the game.
In their second game win in Altona, the Bisons got two hits each from Angus Klassen and Brett Klassen. Brett had two RBIs while Angus, who also got the pitching win, had one. Waldner had the save as the Bisons overcame a 3-1 Giants lead after the first inning.
The MJBL finals are scheduled to begin Sunday, August 1 with the highest placed semi-final winner gaining home field advantage for the series.
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