The Dirty Dozen from Muskoka certainly epitomised its nickname as they scraped and clawed their way through Baseball Ontario's Annual Bantam Select Provincial Championship Tournament where the best select teams from across Ontario battle one another through the Labour Day Weekend to see who survives long enough to make it to the end.

A total of twelve teams who had been the best in their respective provincial regions through the summer season earned the right to participate in this prestigious event.   One of those regions is  York Simcoe Region which encompasses municipalities north of Toronto from Vaughan and Markham up through Barrie and Orillia and into Muskoka.  At the Bantam age level (14-15 years old), the York Simcoe Region included 14 teams who battled one another over the long summer season and then finally determined its representing teams at their own tournament over the August 11-13th weekend. The Muskoka Hornets and Orangeville Bengals were the two teams who earned the right to represent York Simcoe in the Provincials.  

The Muskoka Hornets Bantam team included players born in 2002 and 2003., most of whom started playing baseball when they were 9-10 years old for the fledgling Hornets Mosquito Team.  With this group of lads together over those 4-5 years, they grew both as individuals and as a close-knit team. 

The first years of this team were challenging as the large municipalities in the south with big numbers to draw from and well established programs made minced meat of their northern opponents.  In the first year the Hornets mustered only two wins over the entire season!  And yet they stuck together, they worked hard, they learned about each other, they learned about themselves and they kept improving and they had a ton of fun along the way!

Last year, as the Hornets Pee Wee team, they finished in the top three for all of York Simcoe Region and managed to win their first mid-season tournament hosted by the Muskoka Hornets organisation involving a dozen teams from various areas.  The team fell short of its goal of making the Provincials that year but used the result as motivation, setting our sights on 2017.

We began this season in January with a weekly indoor winter program in Gravenhurst focusing on fundamental skill development.  A rainy spring kept us indoors for most of April and postponed our scheduled season well into late May.  But finally we did start playing with a strong jump off the blocks winning all our games until the first tournament we entered – a large 16 team Greater Toronto Area challenge hosted by Richmond Hill. And the Muskoka Bantams were in fine form winning most of the initial games decisively and finally beating a team from Markham to take the championship trophy back to Muskoka!

The remainder of the season continued to show that this team was no longer a collection of Muskoka hicks in over their heads, but instead, a skilled group of hard working and respectful young men who always left positive impressions wherever their cleats took them!  They ended up with a 13-2 record in the York Simcoe Region loop and entry into the York Simcoe Qualifying Playoffs to determine which two teams would advance to the Ontario Provincials played over the Labour Day Weekend in Mississauga.

As mentioned earlier, the Little Caesars Pizza Muskoka Hornets Bantam Team, along with the Bengals from Orangeville, were the two teams that finished on top in the Qualifier Playoffs and earned a berth in the year-end provincial championship tournament representing all of York Simcoe Region.

The Hornets Bantam boys played their first game of the Provincials on a cold and windy Friday night, Sept. 1st against Annette, a team that had won their region’s play-offs without any losses all season; The Toronto Area.  A strong performance from the Hornets pitchers and hitters gave us a quick 11-1 mercy victory after four innings. 

Saturday morning saw us facing a team from Martingrove that played us tough at first but eventually fell to our bats giving Muskoka a 12-3 win. 

Saturday afternoon had us facing a team from Welland representing the Niagara Region.  They had won their two games as well and we battled back and forth but unfortunately some defensive slip-ups on our end and some timely hits for them gave Welland the win,  and our first loss 10-5.  The format for these play-offs is double-knockout, so we still had a life, but no room for another loss.

We were matched against a team from Guelph on Saturday night who was also fighting for its life.  We managed to get a quick start with three runs early but then saw Guelph claw back and hold even with us until the fourth inning when we smacked in five runs to take the lead and eventually edge out Guelph 9-7 enabling us to advance to the Sunday games.

Sunday morning had us facing a team of second year bantams from Milton, who made easy victories of all their games to date.  Not to be intimidated by the big boys, we let the bats speak for us and after three and a half innings had a 7-2 lead with all the momentum on our side.  And then…..the skies opened and the rain fell down heavily flooding the infield.  The game had to be postponed and re-scheduled to pick up where we had left off at another diamond later in the afternoon.  Faced with this delay and having had the momentum on our side, it was difficult to re-focus and keep the same tone going.  And indeed Milton took advantage of this when we finally re-started and after two innings had crept back to make it 9-6.  But their late run fell short as time was called and we eked the win giving us a shot at the final championship game.

We then had to wait while Milton played a Little League team from Oakville – who had finished second in their Canadian Little League Championships – to face the winner of that game for the final.  Milton ended up winning and we had a re-match of Milton and Muskoka - this time for the Provincial Championship Title! 

At 7:30 pm under dusky skies and a brisk breeze blowing in from Lake Ontario, we took to the diamond for one more game.  Win or lose, this was to be our final game of the 2017  campaign.

Milton was pumped just having beaten Oakville and the bats were hot as they seemed to pound all the stuff our pitchers could come up with.  We fought hard, we never relented, but it was one of those games where nothing seemed to fall in our favour!  Mid-way through the game we had bases loaded and two out and a hard hit deep fly ball looked as if we would score three runs, at least, but the ball never found the ground as a Milton outfielder make a spectacular rundown to end the inning!

Our resolve was unconditional, our effort was valiant, our hearts were big, but in the end we could not muster enough to beat the boys from Milton.  So a second place trophy from the 2017 Ontario Championships is what we ended up taking back with us.   We tip our hats to the better team on that night and look forward to another encounter next year.  We left nothing on the field and we come home knowing that the game of baseball unfolds in many ways and it’s always the big perspective that matters; it’s the journey more than the destination; and perhaps next year we’ll stand on the peak…there’s always next year!    

The folks from Muskoka should be proud of your team.  They are great ambassadors of baseball and of the Muskoka Hornets Baseball Organization, and of the entire district of Muskoka.  As predominantly a first year team, we are all looking forward to next season where we expect to be bigger and stronger and, of course, hungrier for the Provincial Championship Title!  Our tryouts for 2018 will start soon.  Please check the Hornets Baseball website for details for the bantam team as well as all the other age-groups of budding baseball players.

THE 2017 LITTLE CAESARS PIZZA MUSKOKA HORNETS BANTAM SELECT BASEBALL TEAM LINE-UP:

Kaden Taylor (2003) P/IF/CF from Bracebridge

Aramis Allan (2003) P/OF from Gravenhurst

Jacob White (2003) P/IF/OF from Huntsville

Cody Thomas (2003) P/C/IF from Bracebridge

Hayden Pedwell (2003) P/1B/OF from Gravenhurst

Wilson Babineau (2003) P/1B/2B from Huntsville

Zach Boese (2003) P/SS/C from Gravenhurst

Riley Belanger (2003) P/LF from Huntsville

Marcus Kerr (2003) P/OF/IF from Bracebridge

Oliver Fellows-Zanello (2002) P/3B/SS from Gravenhurst

Ethan Payne (2002) RF from Huntsville

Tenney Danko (2002) C/CF from Bracebridge

Manager: Simone Babineau (2000?) from Huntsville

Coaches:  Helen Payne; Clinton Muller; Joe Hickes; Gunnar Muller