The University of Toronto Varsity Blues baseball team opened the 2017 OUA Championship with a dominant 6-0 quarter-final victory over the Guelph Gryphons on Friday, October 13 in Ajax, Ont.
 
With the victory, the Blues will take on the winner of tonight's fourth quarter-final, Brock or Waterloo, in semi-final action tomorrow at 3 p.m.

Veteran pitcher Graham Tebbit used a fastball and curveball combination to keep Guelph hitters off balance.  He would strike out eight and not walk a batter over his eight innings of work.  
 
"Our biggest strength today was our defence that made some really key plays," said Tebbit. "Guelph slipped up twice maybe and we took advantage of it.  That is how the game works; who can take advantage of mistakes."
 
In the first couple of innings, Tebbit was still trying to find command of his curveball.  Guelph opened the second with two singles from Nick Interisano and Troy Lacoste, but a heads up play by left fielder Michael Deluca doubled off Interisano at second on a flyout. A pick off by Tebbit ended the biggest threat Guelph would have all afternoon.
 
Toronto would get on the board in the first, in large part due to their team speed.  Deluca would steal two bases, including a well-executed double steal of home with Bradley Bedford.  This would lead to the first run of the game.  Later in the inning, a two-run error by Guelph would give Toronto a 3-0 lead after the first.
 
Deluca was again be part of the scoring for Toronto in the two-run fourth inning.  With two out, Gabriel Nakonechny doubled in a run and Deluca followed with a run-scoring single.  In the seventh, Mateos Kekatos  finish the Toronto scoring with a towering homerun off of Guelph reliever Nathan Kramer.
 
Guelph was unable to get anything going against the Toronto pitching.  They would only muster five hits against Tebbit and reliever Andrew Greig. 

Source: Sean Addis

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