Sultans continuing quest for MJBL 3-peat

The Carillon Sultans have kept their hopes of a Manitoba Junior Baseball League three-peat going all the way to the championship series.

Powered by a pair of outstanding outings on the mound from Cedric Lagasse in games one and four, Carillon cruised past the St Boniface Legionaires 3-1 in the best-of-five league semi-finals.

Lagasse allowed just three hits over 13 innings of work in a pair of shutout wins. Connor Martin had an excellent outing of his own in game three, accounting for 10 of his team’s 15 outs (seven strikeouts and three pickoffs) in a five-inning mercy rule win.

The Legionaires squeaked a 6-5 win over the line in game two, despite trailing heading into the bottom of the sixth.

“Even the game we lost, Ryan Powers threw well, they just found ways to get at him late in the game,” head coach Don Meilleur said after the win in game four at Whittier Park.

“It was a really good series. The last two games were 10-0 and 11-0, but they weren’t really 10-0 or 11-0 games. The games were really close up to a certain point and then we just had a big inning on them.”

Meilleur said he was grateful that the series didn’t go five games and that Lagasse was able to complete the game without getting to 75 pitches. That low pitch count means he’ll be eligible to start game one of the finals.

“We have some riches at pitcher with Ced and Martin as our one/two,” Meilleur said.

“It’s hard for a team to beat us in a series because you’re going to have to face those guys twice each. And if you beat us and you beat those guys, you’ve earned it because those, to me, are the best two pitchers in the league.”

Lagasse finished with eight strikeouts in the game four win, but his best moment may have been in the bottom of the fifth. After a five-pitch strikeout, he followed by inducing a first-pitch pop out and a first pitch ground-out to round out a seven pitch inning.

A pair of six and seven run innings were the difference for Carillon in their blowout wins in games three and four.

Starting St Boniface pitcher Jack Antonio looked nearly un-hittable through three innings, with Carillon needing to sneak a ball just through the infield to kick off the scoring in the bottom of the fourth, before a massive seven-run fifth inning ended any comeback hopes.

“Hitting is contagious,” Meilleur said.

“As soon as we started feeling it and started to get some barrels on balls, the guys on the bench they want to get up because they want to be the next guy to rip something.”

It was a zero-error outing for the Sultans in the field, which gave St Boniface no daylight to get back into the game.

“We don’t give teams extra outs,” Meilleur said, noting fielding is his team’s strongest attribute.

“If you’re going to get runs on us, you’re going to have to earn it with good plate appearances and getting base hits because we’re not going to kick the ball around.”

The Elmwood Giants and Pembina Valley Orioles were locked at 2-2 heading into a fifth and deciding game after press time in Winnipeg July 22, with the Giants setting up a third consecutive final with Carillon thanks to a 5-0 win.

The Sultans will have home field advantage and are scheduled to host games on July 24, 28 and 31 (if necessary and weather permitting). Game one will start at 7 p.m. and games three and five will begin at 6:45 p.m.

When Manitoba last hosted nationals in 2022, Sultans Rylan Penner and Cody Gunderson won gold medals as pick-up players for Elmwood.

GAME 1

Cedric Lagasse, who will go down in history as one of the league’s best playoff performers, added another pitching gem to his resume in game one of the MJBL semi-finals July 16.

Lagasse, who has won championship most valuable player honours in the past two years, threw a complete game, allowing just two hits through seven innings as Carillon won game one 3-0. St Boniface had runners in scoring position just two at bats throughout the entire game, with threats in the top of the first and third both ended by two of Lagasse’s eight strikeouts on the night.

The Sultans were inefficient in their offense, but produced more than enough to pick up the win. They spread 10 hits over their six offensive innings, but could only generate three runs, kick-started by a Carson Janzen sacrifice fly which scored Dayton Christensen in the bottom of the fourth.

GAME 2

The Legionaires survived a late Carillon push for a dramatic 6-5 victory to even the series 1-1 at Whittier Park July 17. St Boniface took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second, with Carillon managing a late inning comeback, plating five runs in the top of the fifth/sixth.

That set the stage for a St Boniface comeback of their own, as they scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to win.

The winning run was scored in gut-wrenching fashion as Jonah Norman, who only advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, scored on a wild pitch. It was Ryan Powers’ 92nd pitch of the outing.

Powers finished the night with allowing nine hits while striking out seven.

GAME 3

It was a scorching hot day July 19, and it looked like the Sultans were eager to get off the field and back into the air conditioning as soon as possible.

Carillon batted around the order in the first inning, plating six runs en route to a 10-0 mercy-rule victory to take a 2-1 series lead. The game was called after the top of the fifth inning.

Pitcher Connor Martin didn’t need his defense to work hard in the win. He accounted for 10 of his team’s 15 outs in the victory, throwing seven strikeouts to catcher Dayton Christensen and catching three runners sleeping with pick-off throws to first baseman Cody Wielgosh who was spelled by Drew Heide in the later innings.

The best play of the game may have been Martin’s first pick-off of the afternoon. After his team posted a six-spot in the bottom of the first, St Boniface threatened the Carillon starter, who needed to work around a two-out double in the top of the second and a opening walk in the top of the third.

That runner was promptly eliminated on the basepaths with a pick-off, meaning anther walk and a single later in the inning didn’t threaten to score.

Four more runs in the bottom half of the third clinched the easy victory.

GAME 4

Lagasse was just as brilliant in game four as he was in game one, but got a lot more help from his bats, as the Sultans cruised to an 11-0 mercy rule victory to clinch the series July 21 in Winnipeg.

Lagasse allowed just two batters on base across six innings, with a Caleb Lagace double the only hit St Boniface recorded on the night.

Powers, Anders Meilleur and Mike Lindsay all collected a pair of RBIs on the night, with Joe Plett providing some more fireworks.

With his team leading just 2-0 in the fifth, Plett crushed a triple and when the throw to third bounced away from St Boniface, popped up from his head first slide and charged home to score on the same play.