For the 2nd time in 3 years - first as a Major Mosquito Rep A team and now as a Major Peewee Rep AA squad – the White Sox won the Ontario Provincial Championship that was played over the Labor Day weekend. Martingrove had swept to victory in the Toronto Baseball Associations playoffs two weeks earlier winning all five of their games and entered the provincials with a 38-16-4 record for the season.

In the first game of the OBAs on Friday, September 1, the White Sox knocked off the Mississauga Majors, 4-3, with a dramatic seventh inning walk-off single. In game two on Saturday morning the White Sox faced the always tough East York Bulldogs and once again won the game in walk-of fashion with two runs in the bottom of the seventh. As the tournament moved into Sunday the competition got tougher and the morning’s game pitted the White Sox against a powerful Barrie Red Sox team. The boys built an early 6 run lead and held off the Red Sox to win, 8-4. Next up was the Newmarket Hawks and with solid pitching and timely hitting the White Sox edged out Newmarket, 5-2. The four straight wins put Martingrove into the championship round on Monday.

Because they had the second-best record during the weekend tournament the Barrie Red Sox also qualified for the championship round. But to win the provincial title they would have to beat Martingrove twice. Martingrove would just need a victory in game one to win it all.

On Monday morning Barrie struck early and often and despite getting two runs in both the 6th and 7th innings the White Sox fell short and suffered their first tournament loss, 7-6. This set the stage for the winner-take-all final match in the afternoon. And Martingrove came out swinging scoring 5 in the first and coasted to a 19-hit, 16-6 win over Barrie and captured the Ontario title.

It was a storybook ending to a great season for head coach Eric Descoteaux’s team who said after the game, “The coaches and parents of these great kids are so glad that all their hard work and dedication to the game and to each other has paid off. This is their second provincial title and I know these boys will be back in the spring looking for a third!”