Newfoundland and Labrador came up with a second straight decisive win Friday at the national 16U invitational girls baseball championship, but it wasn’t enough to secure advancement to the playoff round of the tourney in Bedford, N.S.
A 9-2 win over New Brunswick left the Newfoundlanders with a 2-1 record at the conclusion of its three-game preliminary round, but only one team advanced to quarter-final play out of Pool C and that berth went to a Nova Scotia entry, which won all three of its contest, including an opening-day victory over N.L.
The tourney is being conducted using a tiered/ranking system that had four entries from the Atlantic Provinces in Pool C.
Newfoundland will left in a placing pool, where it will face Prince Edward Island today. N.L. blanked P.E.I. 20-0 in preliminary play on Thursday.
In Friday’s win over New Brunswick, Claire Dwyer of Grand Falls-Windsor and Jaida Lee of St. John’s combined for 10 strikeouts as pitchers and each rapped out two hits at the plate for Newfoundland.
Meanwhile, at the Ray Carter Cup national boys 15U tourney in Oshawa, Ont., Newfoundland posted its first win Friday, edging New Brunswick 6-5.
Jay Miller started on the mound for Newfoundland, striking out five while scattering seven hits over five innings. He also had two hits, including a one-out single that drove in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Mark Torraville came on in relief and was perfect over the final two innings, striking out three in picking up the win.
Newfoundland had lost its first three games of the tourney, including a 10-1 setback in a Friday-morning matchup against Manitoba.
Newfoundland finishes up its preliminary schedule against Alberta today.
