The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor 27 | Friday, July 18, 2014 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com "Connected to your Community" In pursuit of a dream TAB grad playing professional baseball in Winnipeg T Oakville native Taylor Bratton delivers a pitch for the Winnipeg Goldeyes. The 23-year-old lefty has yet to surrender a run after three relief appearances for the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball Teams club. | photo by Jeff Miller/Winnipeg Goldeyes aylor Bratton was vacationing at his family's cottage near Peterborough last month when the interest he'd been seeking for so long finally came. It arrived in the form of an email from Winnipeg Goldeyes manager Rick Forney. And it came with an expiration date. "It said, `If you can be in Quebec City tomorrow, we'll give you a chance,'" Bratton recalls. Fortunately, the 23-year-old T.A. Blakelock high school graduate didn't need much time to mull over his options. Bratton drove back to Oakville that night, boarded an airplane at Pearson International the following morning and arrived in time to work out for the Goldeyes. If that passion for baseball wasn't enough to impress the Goldeyes, Bratton's 15-pitch bullpen session apparently was. Winnipeg, which draws roughly 5,400 fans a game to lead all American Association of Independent Professional Baseball teams in average attendance, signed the left-handed pitcher to a contract that day. "Surprisingly, (the cost of the flight) wasn't too bad. It was only about $275," says Bratton. "If this is your dream, the cost didn't really matter to me." Undrafted by MLB clubs That dream, the one of playing Major League Baseball, has been interrupted a few times in the past by disappointment. Bratton, a control pitcher whose fastball tops out at 88 miles per hour, thought he might be selected in MLB's first-year player draft following his junior campaign at the University of West Alabama. He thought so again after completing his senior season earlier this year. He was wrong both times. Being passed up by MLB squads wasn't enough to deter him, however. Bratton still believed in himself, having posted a 2.71 earned-run average in 28 starts during his final two years at West Alabama. The Oakville Little League and Oakville Royals product was also coming off a strong 2013 summer season with the Coastal Plain League's Asheboro Copperheads, where he was 2-2 with a 2.88 ERA in 12 appearances for the North Carolina collegiate club. Bratton took some time off this spring before joining the Intercounty Baseball League's Hamilton Cardinals. He was 2-1 with a 3.56 ERA before drawing interest from the Goldeyes, one of 10 professional clubs Bratton had contacted in search of an opportunity. "Obviously, everyone wants to hear their name called on (MLB) draft day. I thought I had my opportunities. I'd been in contact with a couple of teams. But it's one of those things where there are so many kids eligible to be drafted and each team only takes 40 kids. Your chances of getting drafted are very slim," Bratton says. "Just the fact that I got to come play here (in Winnipeg), to me, it says I'm not finished. My dreams aren't done." For the love of the game You don't get rich playing in the American Association, an independent league that also features teams in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Indiana, Kansas, see Jays' on p.28 Oakville Whitecaps squads one step away from Little League World Series by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor After going a dozen years between provincial championships, Oakville Little League's all-star program waited just one day to win its next one. The junior Whitecaps (14-under) recently snapped OLL's title drought by winning the Little League Ontario championship with five consecutive victories -- three of them by 15 runs or more -- capped by a 2-1 victory over the Kanata Cubs in Kemptville. The following day in Kanata, the intermediate Whitecaps (13U) completed an unlikely run to the provincial crown with a 3-1 triumph over last year's Ontario junior champi- ons, the East Nepean Eagles. Both Whitecaps teams advance to national championship tournaments that begin this week in Alberta. The intermediates open their all-Canadian competition today (Friday) in Calgary against Saskatchewan, and the intermediates get started tomorrow (Saturday) in Lethbridge versus Quebec. "We've been building the all-star program for the last four or five years through putting more focus on development and getting (players) to realize the magnitude of these playdowns," said OLL president John Sweeney. "They go into these tournaments very focused on getting to the next level. We've been successful in putting competitive teams together." The Canadian champions will play in the Little League World Series against eight regional champs from the United States as well as representatives from seven other countries. No OLL team has ever qualifed for the Little League World Series. OLL hosted the provincial senior championships in 2008, but this year marks the association's first Ontario crowns since its junior program won back-to-back titles in 2001-02. Juniors The junior Whitecaps dominated their first three games at provincials, defeating Windsor South Canadians 24-0, Perth Royals 20-5 and Westfort Internationals 24-3. The competition stiffened in the playoffs, where Oakville pulled out a 6-5 win over the Orleans Red Sox in the semifinals, then edged Kanata in the championship game. All the scoring in the final was done in the first inning, with see Intermediates on p.28