57 | Friday July 2 8 , 2 0 1 7 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | w w w .in sid e h alto n .co m Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burlingtonpost.com Sports "Connected to your Community " Michael Bowman (left) of the Oakville Whitecaps can't snare the throw from the plate as Brendan Mackey of the East Nepean Eagles slides safely into second base in round-robin action at the Ontario Junior (U14) Little League Championships at the Glen Abbey Community Centre. Oakville won 13-5 and the two teams met again in Wednesday's final where the Whitecaps cruised to a 15-1 victory to advance to next week's national championships in Lethbridge, Alb. Sam Armstrong (below) scored three times and drove in a pair of runs in the championship game. | photo by Graham Paine - Oakville Beaver Whitecaps roll to Ontario Little League title By Herb Garbutt O akville Beaver s ta ff Having scored 50 times in three games, run production had not been a problem for the Oakville Whitecaps at the On tario Junior Little League Championships. Still, w hen your team is one w in away from advancing to the national championships, you don't want to take any chances that you 'll run into a hot pitcher. So w hen Trevor Smith came to the plate with the bases loaded and his team leading 1-0 in the second inning, he wanted to make the m ost of the opportunity. "I wanted to swing at the first pitch and do som e damage," Smith said. "He threw it in m y w heelhouse and I drove it. It felt good going off the bat." Smith' s hit sailed over the left fielder, cashing in all three runners with a triple to ignite a six-run inning that put the host W hitecaps on course for a 15-1 victory over East N e pean. That w in earns the Whitecaps a trip to the Canadian Little League Championship in Lethbridge, Alb. Smith proved to be a valuable asset w ith the glove as well. The first baseman snagged a line drive dow n the line to turn what w ould likely have been a double into a double play as he stepped on first to erase East N epean' s lead-off walk. Those plays helped give Michael Bowman an early lead to work with. "There' s always a bit of nerves until you find your rhythm," Bowman said. "The line drive double play helped me settle in ." The W hitecaps starter allowed only one hit -- an infield single -- through three innings, but East Nepean led off the fourth with a walk and an RBI-double, bringing an end to his day. Riley Johnson came on in relief to strike out the side and retired six of the seven batters he faced to close the game. As prolific as the offence had been, the W hitecaps' pitch ing was equally impressive. Oakville allowed only nine runs in four tournament games. More than half of those came in a tournament-opening 13-5 w in over East Nepean. The W hitecaps followed that up w ith a 19-3 w in over Glebe and an 18-0 shutout of Windsor. "We used 11 different pitchers in the tournament," said W hitecaps manager N ick Rigato. "We got good defence, of fence, pitching. Everybody contributed to this." That was evident in the final, where all 13 players either had a hit or scored a run. Leadoff man Sam Armstrong scored the first of his three runs as the W hitecaps opened the scoring in the first with out the benefit of a hit. He walked, stole second, moved up on a w ild pitch and scored on Johnson' s sacrifice fly. Jacob Carroll and Ben Massey led off the second with sin gles and after Alex Gaudet was hit by a pitch, Smith cleared the bases. He then scored on Armstrong' s ground out. Oakville w ould add two more as both Johnson and Bowman scored on a w ild pickoff throw. East Nepean retired the first two batters in the third, but Mateo Gianndis, Armstrong and Marshall Williams hit con secutive singles. After an error kept the rally alive, Bowman, w ho was 3-for-3, singled hom e Oakville' s fourth run of the inning to make it 11-0. Oakville capitalized on three East Nepean errors, using two walks and three hits to add four more runs in the fourth. The W hitecaps qualified for the under-13 nationals last year and Rigato says having eight players returning from that team should benefit them this year. "The fact that they are going to be jum ping on a plane to play baseball, they've done it before. I think it will be calm ing for them. They w on 't be overwhelm ed." "It was a great experience," Bowman said. "Having already played at that high level will help us in Lethbridge. It should be bigger and better this tim e." KEEGAN BRADLEY While it hasn't been the best year for Bradley, he has two top-10 finishes in the past month, plus a victory at an unofficial event. Bradley had six birdies and an eagle on No. 18 in Thursday's opening round as he shot a 67. BUBBAWATSON Watson should thrive on Glen Abbey's par-5s because of his length off the tee and ability to shape shots. He birdied three of the four par 5s in Thursday's opening round on his way to a 66. Who to watch for at the RBC Canadian Open DUSTIN JOHNSON The world No. 1 has struggled since his fall at the Masters, but he is second in average driving distance (313 yards) on a course that favours big hitters. He has finished second twice at Glen Abbey, including last year. JOHN RAHM Few people knew him when he posted a career best second-place finish at Glen Abbey last year. Now he has seven top-10 finishes this season and is fifth in the FedEx Cup standings while rising to seventh in the world rankings. MATT KUCHAR Matt Kuchar has finished no worse than ninth in the last four Canadian Opens and was runner-up at last week's British Open. That finish helped him jump from 18th to 12th in the world rankings. MACKENZIE HUGHES The top Canadian in the world golf rankings at No. 104, Hughes strung together five birdies in six holes on his way to a 67 in Thursday's opening round as he looked to become the first Canadian to win the tournament since 1954.