Blitz win Bronze in Wiarton

from Andrew Bruce

The Ottawa Blitz returned home on Sunday from the B provincials in Wiarton with the bronze medal.

The Blitz had wins over Kitchener Selects (6-3), Saugeen Shores (9-2, 5 innings) and Enterprise (3-0, 6 innings). Their only losses were to each of the eventual finalists - Colbourne Merchants (9-2, 6 innings) and Wiarton Nationals (2-1).

The bronze medal game was cut short in the bottom on the 6th with the Blitz beating Enterprise by a score of 3-0. The Enterprise catcher twisted his knee on a close play at the plate, just after they had used their last player off the bench.

The semi final game saw the Blitz lose 2-1 to the host Wiarton Nationals. The Blitz were up 1-0 on a run by Russ Mitchel (scored on a John Zeiger sac-fly), when the Nationals scored both their runs in the top of the 6th to capture the lead. The Blitz had a number of hard hit balls throughout the game, but couldn't find any holes in the Wiarton defence.

Jamie Blakely was very strong for the Blitz all weekend. Blakely pitched both Sunday games for the Blitz, only giving up 2 runs over 13 innings of work. Saturday saw Blakely toe the rubber for 7 2/3 innings, giving up only 2 runs and capturing 2 wins.

The Blitz recieved great performances from the bats of Will Mood, John Zeiger (Lake Simcoe), Todd Hamblin (Lake Simcoe) and Brad Copping (Lake Simcoe). While Brett "the squirrel" Dugan had a strong weekend patrolling the outfield for the Blitz and made a number of exciting catches at key points in time.