The Mississauga North Tigers felt they had a reputation to live up to at the Canadian bantam baseball championships over the weekend in Vaughan.
After all, the organization won last year's tournament in the same location and the current group of Tigers wanted to continue that championship tradition.
The Tigers managed to live up to expectations, going undefeated in this year's tournament and defeating the representatives from Quebec 7-3 last night (Sun. Aug. 23) in the championship game.
"Being a team like they are, there's always a target on their back and the fact that (Mississauga North) won last year just adds to the story," said Tigers coach Chris Naylor.
Mississauga North was powered by four RBIs from Noah Naylor while Blake Buckles drove the other three runs in.
Earlier in the tournament, the Tigers edged Quebec 6-5 in a game where Mississauga surrendered a few runs on errors. Naylor said that experience was a wake-up call heading into the final.
"We had a lot of pitching left, so that wasn't going to be an issue," he said. "We just had to protect the baseball, try to get the early lead and hold onto it."
Most of the Tigers have been together for eight years when they began playing together in junior rookie ball.
Naylor began coaching the team in their peewee year and the team has been dominant over the past few seasons, as indicated by their perfect 48-0 season two years ago as peewees.
A lot of the players are good enough to move onto academy programs such as the Ontario Blue Jays next season.
"I felt very happy for the core group," Naylor said. "I'm very proud that these guys could all share into the brotherhood of the team and the fact that we've been together for such a long time… It was gratifying from both ends (as both a coach and a parent)."
The team will compete in the Ontario Baseball Association championships over the Labour Day weekend in Toronto.