Follow @PBR_Ontario

By Chris Kemlo
Ontario Scouting Director

For insider information and scouting notes from the PBR staff during the 2016 spring and summer seasons visit the 2016 Ontario Scout Blog by clicking here.

Interested in attending a PBR Ontario event? Check out our schedule by clicking here.

Ontario Insider: Tournament 12 - Ontario Black vs Team BC

Rogers Centre: The 2016 Championship game took place between Ontario Black and Team BC, 6:00 Monday night at the Rogers Centre. Both teams are loaded with prospects, and too many, it is not that much of a surprise that these two teams are meeting in the finals.

Starter for the Ontario team was uncommitted 2018 right-hander Griffin Hassall. Hassall had worked three no-hit innings already, and Ontario was looking for more of the same from Hassall again. The 6-foot-2, long and lean righty had to pitch through a blister earlier in the week, and was doing the same again. He worked and battled through two innings before having to depart with the blister acting up again. Hassall struck out three while allowing no runs on one hit.

Ontario was able to open the scoring when they took advantage of a misfortunate injury in right-field for BC. Adam Plouffe lead off the third inning with a base hit to right field. A high bounce on the Rogers Centre turf, accompanied by what appeared to be a hamstring injury to right fielder Dawson Gray on the play allowed the ball to roll all the way to the wall and for Plouffe to circle the bases for an inside the park home run.

Black was able to add two more runs as base hits by Antonio Cruz and Leo Markotic kept the inning alive as Markotic would score on Adam Hall’s groundout and Lucas Parente would score on a BC error to extend the inning and score to 3-0.

Left-hander and Florida resident Adam Tulloch would come in to work the third and fourth innings. After a scoreless third, Tulloch would issue two walks, mixed around an infield error and base hit and BC climbed their way back into the game to tie the score at 3-3.

The next pitcher to come on for Ontario Black was 2018 Oklahoma commit Ben Abram. What Abram did next was brilliant as he worked three scoreless innings, throwing 17 pitches, all of them for strikes.

Black could sense how dominant Abram looked on the mound and knew if they could push across a run, that this game would be all but over. They did just that in the top of the sixth as Hall lead off with a single and would score on a sac-fly by Plouffe to give Ontario the lead. A few walks and the bases were loaded for Markotic who came up with a double to centre that plated two more runs and give Black a 6-3, with only six outs left to get for the victory.

Abram continued to make quick work of BC, striking out five batters over his three innings while issuing only one hit, picking up the victory for Ontario in the T12 championship game.

This is the first time Ontario has won T12, and with top prospects such as Adam Hall, Noah Naylor, Ben Abram, Noah Skirrow, Daniel Carinci among others, it is easy to see how Ontario came out on top.

A fantastic week for the entire country, we look forward to continuing our coverage on T12 in 2017.

Boxscore

Ontario  003 003 0 - 6 5 2
BC          000 300 0 - 3 3 2

Pitching Line

• Griffin Hassall - 2ip, 1 H, 0 R, 3 K 
• Adam Tulloch - 2ip. 1 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
• Ben Abram - 3ip. 1 H, 0 R, 5 K (winning pitcher)

Top Performers

• Leo Markotic - 2-3, R, 2B, 2 RBI
• Adam Hall - 1-4, 1B, R, RBI, 2 SB
• Adam Plouffe - 1- 2, HR