Ilderton Reds Junior Team Complete Dream Season


Standing (l-r) John Townshend (coach), Mark Godwin, Cory Ewart, Sonny Daniels, Jeff Latta, Josh Bridgman, Jordan Townshend, Brendon Dantzer, Coltan Durnin, Rudy Godwin (coach)
Seated (l-r) Mike Gough, Kyle Harris, Craig Orton, Brendan Wraith, Ryan Barker, Jay Tighe


The Ilderton Reds had an overall record of 32-9-1. We competed in 4 "A" tournaments and faced some of the best Junior teams in Ontario with great success. We began the year by winning the Wyoming tournament by going 4-1 and defeating the host Wyoming Cowboys in the final game 3-2, thanks to a two out, two strike, bottom of the 7th inning RBI single by Sonny Daniels. We were also semi-finalists in two other tournaments, one hosted by St. Thomas and the other by Burlington.

We repeated as LDBA (London and District Baseball Association) pennant winners with a record of 16-3-1, and completed our regular season by winning League Playoffs with a perfect 3-0 record by defeating Oakridge once and St. Thomas twice in the double knockout tournament format. In the league final against the St. Thomas Cardinals the game went 3 extra innings until Ilderton secured victory in the 10th. Cory Ewart started for Ilderton and went 4 strong innings leaving with a 2-1 lead. Jeff Latta came on in relief in the 5th. St. Thomas scored one run in the 6th to tie the game and the game went into the 10th inning still tied 2-2. Jeff Latta drew a leadoff walk in the top of the 10th and Mark Godwin laid down a sacrifice bunt that was thrown away, advancing runners to second and third. Ryan Barker then hit a deep sacrifice fly to left scoring Latta while Godwin tagged at second and advanced to third drawing a bad throw on the relay and scoring on the same play. Latta shut down St. Thomas in the bottom of the 10th and Ilderton defeated St. Thomas 4-2 capturing their second league title in as many years.

                                                Ontario Junior B Champions

In the Ontario Baseball Junior B Championships hosted by Chatham, Ilderton used solid pitching and defense along with some timely hitting to go undeated and win the championship rings. Along with Ilderton, this tournament included teams from Peterborough, Windsor, Milton, Burlington and Chatham. In the opening game vs. Milton, Ilderton jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the 1st only to see Milton respond with 2 runs in the their half of the inning. Ilderton starting pitcher Brendon Dantzer, didn't give up any more runs after the 1st inning and the game went into the 6th tied 2-2. In the top of the 6th Kyle Harris got to first after being hit by a pitch and Jeff Latta drove him home with a triple deep in the right field corner. Jordan Townshend started the 6th in relief of Dantzer and retired six in a row with 4 strikeouts in his two innings of work to secure the victory.

In the second game vs. Burlington Jeff Latta pitched a complete game shutout while allowing only 4 hits and striking out 9 to earn a 2-0 win. Ilderton scored their two runs in the 2nd inning on a leadoff triple by Sonny Daniels a walk to Kyle Harris and back to back RBI singles by Jeff Latta and Cory Ewart.

After receiving a bye in the third round Ilderton faced Burlington again in their third game. It began as another tight game going into the 5th inning tied 1-1. In the bottom of the 5th Ilderton shortstop Mark Godwin lead of with a single and Craig Orton followed with a bunt single. Mike Gough the hit a triple, scoring both runners and Ilderton went on to score 4 more runs in that inning and one more in the sixth to win 8-1 and eliminate Burlington from the tournament. Jordan Townshend picked up the win going all 7 innings while allowing 2 hits and striking out 12.

Ilderton went to the final game against the host Chatham team who had already lost one game in the double-knockout tournament and would have to beat Ilderton twice. This game started with Ilderton taking advantage of their speed and capitalizing on some early Chatham errors. In the 1st inning Ilderton scored it's first run with Craig Orton stealing home and this seemed to shakeup the Chatham team who found themselves trailing 5-0 after 3 innings. However, Chatham fought their way back into the game with some seeing eye singles in the fourth inning and Ilderton starter Sonny Daniels gave way to Latta in relief. Chatham scored one more run in the fifth to tie the score at 5. Ilderton threatened in every inning from the 5 through the 8th but could not score while Jordan Towshend who had started the 6th in relief of Latta held Chatham hitless. In the top of the 9th inning Mike Gough lead off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Josh Bridgman. Gough went to third on a passed ball and was looking to score on a basehit or sacrifice fly when the Chatham catcher threw a ball wildly back to the pitcher and Gough scappered home to give Ilderton a 6-5 lead. Townshend completed the bottom of the 9th by stiking out all 3 Chatham batters and earning Ilderton the Championship.

In three seasons at the Junior level (ages 19-21) Ilderton won two LDBA pennants and were League finalists all three years while winning the last two. In Ontario Playdowns, Ilderton won Junior D in 2006 were silver Medallists in Junior C in 2007 and completed their Junior year with a Junior B championship.

Coaches John Townshend and Rudy Godwin would like to congratulate their players on a very successful Junior career and look forward to putting together a Senior team that can have as much fun and success over many baseball seasons to come.

Mark Godwin holds the Championship trophy for the Ontario Junior B Winners. Mark is one of two players along with Brendan Wraith who originally started with and continually played for coach Rudy Godwin throughout their minor baseball careers with Ilderton. They began as a Mosquito team in 1997 and in the 12 years since then they have won 5 Ontario Championships. One each in Mosquito, PeeWee and Bantam and two in Junior. Coach Rudy Godwin had coached his older son Brent to two previous Ontario Championships in 1992 and 1993 which brings his total to 7.

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