Belmore, Wingham, Sebringville earn byes in Huron County Fastball League year-end tournament

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

All the games have been played and the runs have been tallied and the Belmore Stingers are the regular season champions of the Huron County Fastball League with a record of 19-1 and 38 points. Just one loss - on Aug. 1 by a score of 8-7 to the Milverton Millwrights on the road - stood between the Stingers and the elusive perfect season.

 

The Wingham Hitmen ended the season in second place with 28 points and a record of 14-6, followed by the third-place Sebringville Sting with a record of 13-7 and 26 points. 

 

Though they have identical 11-9 records with 22 points each, the Brussels Tigers will place fourth, followed by the Monkton Muskrats in fifth and the Goderich Grizzlies in sixth. The tie was broken by way of calculating the runs for each team when playing the teams with which they’re tied. With 16, the Tigers placed first within this three-team cluster, followed by the Muskrats with 14 and the Grizzlies with nine.

 

The Mitchell Mets finished the season in seventh place with a record of 9-10-1 and 19 points, followed by the eighth-place Elmira U20 Expos with a record of 8-10-2 and 18 points and the ninth-place Brussels Bangers and 10th-place Milverton Millwrights, both of which had identical 8-12 records with 16 points each. The Brussels Bangers won the head-to-head series, which moved them into ninth place.

 

The Walton Brewers finished in 11th place with 13 points and a record of 6-13-1, followed by the Fullarton A’s in 12th place with a record of 6-14 and 12 points and the last-place Wroxeter Rippers with a record of 4-16 and eight points.

 

The last game of the regular season was played on Monday night in Brussels; a 5-0 win for the Monkton Muskrats over the Brussels Bangers.

 

One day earlier was a tough one for the Sebringville Sting. They were on the road for two games, in an effort to make up the balance of their regular season games before the deadline of Sept. 10, and lost both. First, the team fell to the Rippers in Wroxeter by a score of 13-11 and then to the Brewers in Walton by a score of 14-3, allowing a total of 27 runs over the course of the day.

 

On Sept. 6, the Sebringville Sting hosted the Goderich Grizzlies and won by a score of 4-3, while the Monkton Muskrats welcomed the Milverton Millwrights to town and won by a score of 6-4. The Brussels Bangers also played that night, losing to the Wingham Hitmen by a score of 7-0 in Brussels.

 

One day earlier, the Sebringville Sting beat the Monkton Muskrats in Monkton by a score of 7-5, while, that same night, the Milverton Millwrights hosted the Walton Brewers and won by a score of 9-1 and the Fullarton A’s were in Wroxeter to play the Rippers and won by a score of 11-5.

 

On Wednesday, Sept. 4, the Brussels Tigers hosted the Mitchell Mets, but lost by a score of 10-6. The Monkton Muskrats were in Linwood to play the Elmira U20 Expos that night as well, with the Muskrats winning by a score of 9-3. The Walton Brewers hosted a game with the Goderich Grizzlies that night as well, though Goderich was officially the home team for the contest. Goderich would capitalize on its “home field” advantage and win by a score of 8-7.

 

On Sept. 3, just after the Labour Day weekend, the Brussels Bangers hosted the Sebringville Sting and lost by a score of 11-4. Also that night, the Elmira U20 Expos were forced to forfeit to the Hitmen in Wingham, resulting in a 2-0 victory for the Hitmen.
This weekend, at Mitchell’s Keterson Park, the league will settle all of this season’s unfinished business with its championship tournament. The teams are seeded in accordance with how they finished in the regular season standings and action begins on Friday night at 7 p.m. when the Mitchell Mets play the Milverton Millwrights, the Goderich Grizzlies play the Walton Brewers and the Elmira U20 Expos play the Brussels Bangers. Later that night at 9 p.m., the Brussels Tigers will play the Wroxeter Rippers and the Monkton Muskrats will play the Fullarton A’s.

 

On Saturday morning, the second-seeded Wingham Hitmen will play the winner of the Friday night game between the Mitchell Mets and Milverton Millwrights and the third-seeded Sebringville Sting will play the winner of the Friday night game between the Goderich Grizzlies and Walton Brewers. The top-seeded Belmore Stingers will also play their first game of the tournament that morning, taking on the winner of the Friday night game between the Elmira U20 Expos and the Brussels Bangers. All three games for the top three teams will be played at 10 a.m. on Saturday morning, followed by the rest of the bracket, including the one-loss bracket, the winner of which will return in the championship game, set to be played on Sunday at 3 p.m.
 

Despite placing fourth in the regular season standings, the Brussels Tigers will be on the hunt for their seventh straight Huron County Fastball League title and their eighth in the last nine years. Meanwhile, the only team not named the Brussels Tigers that has won a title in the last nine years, the Wingham Hitmen in 2016, is well positioned to make a run, finishing the season in second place and earning a first-round bye in this weekend’s tournament.