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Jr. Bengals play first NDBL game

May 14, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The North Dufferin Baseball League has seven teams in the junior division line-up this season and that includes the Orangeville Bengals who played their inaugural game in the League against the Mansfield Jr. Cubs on Monday, May 7.

The junior division is a lot more competitive this year after the addition of three new teams.

Monday’s game was the first outing for both teams this season and got underway on the diamond in Mansfield.

Both teams turned up pretty much un-practiced as the late spring kept a lot of sports teams off the fields and with snow on the ground just couple of weeks ago, outdoor training was almost impossible.

The game stared with a 1-0 Mansfield lead after the first inning.

After a fast second inning the game was tied when the O-ville team place men on first and third then followed up with a fly ball to left field that allowed a runner to tag up and score.

The Bengals took a one run lead in the fifth inning but was matched with a single Cubs run to make it a 2-2 game.

It was the sixth inning that created trouble for the Bengals.

After loading the bases with no outs, the Mansfield team started scoring and the game ended up being called on a ten-run mercy rule when the score hit 11-2.

It was a tough break for the Bengals who had been playing a solid game.

“I think we’re a work in progress team,” said Bengals coach Anthony Zambito. “Our goal right now is to be in mid-season form as early as possible. We may not have got the win tonight, but it was still a productive game. I’m happy with the way the boys played. I think our inexperience caught up to us in the sixth inning. The fact that we are a new team – we’ve just got to close it out. Mercy’s don’t happen very often in junior baseball, I’m not surprised it happened in the first game of the season. For most of these guys it’s their first time playing since last season.”

Most of the players are midget players who moved up to the junior division this year and the rest were acquired from Orangeville, Shelburne, and the surrounding area.

The Bengals will play their first home game this Saturday, May 12, at Springbrook Park in Orangeville when they will host the Ivy Blues.

Game time is 1:00 p.m.

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