Ivy Leafs beat Aurora to take baseball league title in six games

September 26, 2014 · 0 Comments

If the Bolton Brewers couldn’t repeat as champions in the North Dufferin Baseball League (NDBL), there might be a bit of satisfaction in knowing they were eliminated by the squad that ended up taking the title.
The championship series concluded Saturday afternoon with the Ivy Leafs defeating the Aurora Jays 1-0 in the sixth game.
The final series started Sept. 7 at Ivy with the home team winning game one 2-1. Games two and three were played at Aurora with the Jays winning both games 5-3 and 3-2. The fourth match went to the Leafs at home 8-4 and then they won 6-3 on the road in game five.
In game six action, both teams started their best on the mound. Brad Grieveson toed the rubber for Ivy while his counterpart Bent Owen threw for the Jays.
Aurora pressured the Leafs for most of the defensive duel. The Jays managed to strand at least one runner in five of seven innings and were unable to capitalize in the sixth frame with the bases loaded.
Ivy scored the lone run in the fifth inning when Mike Kriegizas was walked, the first base runner allowed by Aurora in the game, pushed to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jeremy Uylenbroek and eventually knocked in by a Chad Watters base hit. Ivy held off a late charge from Aurora in both the sixth and seventh innings to win the contest and championship.
Owen pitched a solid outing, allowing only three base runners on two hits and one walk and also had three strikeouts.
Grieveson also pitched a complete game, surrendering seven hits, hit one batsman and recorded two strikeouts. At the end of the game, Grieveson was presented the Paul Carruthers Memorial Award for the Most Valuable Player in the playoffs for his pitching efforts by league treasurer Dan Gowan.
Hits in the game went to Jays Ted Beadle with a pair, Chris Rettie who singled and doubled, Fab Dolan, Daniel Lehmkuhl and Stephen Vallee. The Leafs had singles from Chad Watters and Norm Love.
In the post-game presentation, league secretary Scott Anderson commended both teams on their skilful and exciting play throughout the series and presented the Strother Cup to Dave Reid of the Leafs.