NORTH RIVER - Cody Anthony told his teammates not to dwell on the games the North River Well Within Chiropractic Aces lost at the start of the Eastern Canadian Midget Boys Fastball Championships.
Those words were taken to heart as the host team defeated Ontario's Fullarton A's 7-4 to win the championship title Saturday night.
"I told them they can't think about the games we lost because we can't focus on the task at hand," said Anthony, 17, the day after the Aces won the championship and Anthony pitched three games back-to-back-to-back to earn the MVP title.
"We had to forget about those games we lost to focus on the games in front of us."
After their first two games, the Aces were down both games.
Coach Mark Lavers said the team backed into the playoffs, which it entered with a losing record.
"We carried a number of players and gave different guys a chance to play," said Lavers, adding it wasn't always to the team's benefit.
"A couple of the teams got off to a big lead and it's hard to get back on track after that."
Losing their first two games, Lavers said the players knew they needed to put up a few wins.
"We seem to play best when we have our backs against the wall," he added.
Lavers said the players thought about their final three games one game at a time.
"It was unbelievable," he said. "We had guys that hadn't done a lot of hitting whose bats just caught on fire. We had a lot of homeruns and we're not a homerun team."
The fact they didn't have a break between games may also have played a factor, said Lavers, as did leaving Anthony in to pitch.
"He was very dominant for those three games. He was on a roll so we kept him in there."
To get to the championship game, North River defeated Ontario's Elmira 37's 14-3, and West Hants Thunder 13-4 in the bronze medal game.
rtetanish@trurodaily.com
