Cards face semi-final showdown

The Ancaster Cardinals are one win away from the Canadian Little League Championships final.

The Cardinals pounded out 18 hits in a 19-4 win over Notre Dame de Grace of Quebec to clinch second place at the six team tournament.

Ancaster, 3-2, won the tiebreaker by virtue of a superior runs for and against ratio, ahead of the Praries and Ontario who were also 3-2.

Ancaster will play Prairies representative Calgary Rocky Mountain in semi-final action today at 6 p.m.

Ancaster beat Calgary 7-3 in their round robin match-up on Wednesday.

Justin Mignardi hit a grand slam and Brandon Chong also homered for the hometown Cardinals in Thursday’s win. Starting pitcher Ben Miller got the win. Ancaster sealed the win with a 13-run second inning. The Cardinals sent 19 players to the batter’s box and hit for the cycle in the inning. Brandon Chong started it off with his solo home run, the first of 10 hits in the inning. The Cardinals had three singles, four doubles, one triple and two homers to chase the Quebec starting pitcher out of the game.

Four teams now remain in the hunt for the 2010 championship.

In the early game on Thursday, B.C. representative Little Mountain beat Atlantic’s Glace Bay 18-6. Little Mountain is the overwhelming favourite to win the tournament, posting a 5-0 round robin record and outscoring its opposition 69-11. B.C. actually trailed Glace Bay 5-2 after one inning before storming back to win.

Ontario representative the Windsor South Canadians take on B.C. today at 3 p.m. in the other semi-final game.

Cardinals bounce back with 7-3 win

The Ancaster Cardinals bounced back in a big way yesterday with a 7-3 win over Praries representative Rocky Mountain at the 2010 Canadian Little League Championships.
The hometown Cardinals now have a key game today versus winless Notre Dame de Grace of Quebec.
Ancaster has already clinched a playoff spot, but they will certainly want to beat Quebec to avoid a semi-final match-up against the BC powerhouse who have been blowing out all of their opponents.
Ancaster rode a six-run third inning to bury their Prarie opponents on Wednesday. Riley Gray started things off with a lead-off triple and Caleb Radley connected on his third homer of the tournament to give Ancaster a 2-1 lead. After a walk by Ben Miller and singles by the two Justins, Stephenson and Mignardi, Miller came in to score. Two more singles by Simon Ranger and Riley Gray gave Ancaster a commanding lead in a bat-around inning.
The sky looks a little gray today, but the Cards are poised to potentially clinch third place in the six-team tournament, setting up a semi-final against either the Praries or Ontario.

Cards drop a heartbreaker

Justin Stephenson’s fifth inning home run brought the crowd to its feet, but the Ancaster Cardinals couldn’t close the deal in a 2-1 loss to Ontario champions the Windsor South Canadians.
Matthew Grabstas was thrown out at home attempting to score on a fielder’s choice ground out by Justin Mignardi, and Windsor hung on for the win to improve to 2-1. Ancaster drops to 1-2 at the Canadian Little League Championships with the loss.
Cardinals starting pitcher Mark Szostak took the loss despite giving up only one hit, a solo home run, and one run.
Szostak was also robbed of a third inning home run when his deep fly ball to left field was caught over the wall by Windsor’s Russell Green.
Cardinals head coach Dave Whalen remains confident in his team’s hitting abilities, despite scoring just one run in each of their last two games.
“They’re just not feeding off each other’s positive at-bats,” said Whalen. “We just have to hang in there and keep fighting.”
Whalen planned to give his team the day off today, prior to the Cardinals 6 p.m. match-up with the Praries representative, Calgary Rocky Mountain.

BC dominates little league championships

The Ancaster Cardinals should hold their heads up high, even after Sunday's 11-1 loss to Little Mountain of BC.
That 10-run loss is the closest game BC has played so far. In the opener, they obliterated the Praries team from Calgary Rocky Mountain, 14-2. Today, BC shutout and no-hit the Quebec team, Notre Dame de Grace by a 16-0 score. The game was halted after four innings by the mercy rule.
It's scary just how good this BC team is. If anyone beats them this year, it would have to be considered a monumental upset.

Ancaster beats Glace Bay

As the host team, the Ancaster Cardinals didn't have to qualify for the 2010 Canadian Little League Championships. Nevertheless, today they proved they belong here after a convincing 8-3 win over Atlantic Canada champions Glace Bay, NS.

Ben Miller had a clutch three-run triple in the sixth inning to break open a close game. Starting pitcher Caleb Radley helped his own cause with a solo home run that proved to be the winning score.

Ancaster scored two unearned runs in the first inning and never trailed the rest of the way.

Next up for Ancaster is the BC champion Little Mountain, who were pegged by many as the team to beat. Ancaster takes on Little Mountain at 3 p.m. on Sunday.