Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Following last weekend’s Ontario eliminations in Wilmot, the field of eight teams that will be headed to Napanee for Softball Canada’s U20 Men’s Canadian Championships Aug. 2-7 is now set.
Ontario’s Tavistock, Rostock and Hagersville qualified at eliminations to join the host Napanee Express to round out the Ontario entries. Two teams from Saskatchewan, one from Nova Scotia and one from Quebec have already been confirmed.
Napanee’s U20 Express showed even though they are playing as the host team they’ll be a force to reckon with at Canadians as they reached the finals of last weekend’s Ontario eliminations.
Napanee opened the tournament with a 15-4 win over Springbrook on Friday and kept rolling with a 1-0 win over Hagersville on Saturday morning. They blanked Port Perry 12-0 to head into Sunday undefeated.
Playing for a double life and a direct trip to the finals, the Express fell 3-2 to Tavistock. That dropped them into the semifinals against Rostock, where the Express bats came alive for a 10-3 win.
That win advanced Napanee to the finals, where they’d have to beat Tavistock twice to win the tournament while Tavistock needed just one victory.
Napanee was able to force a winner-take-all with a 1-0 win in the first game. Gavin Brooks cashed Bryson Gilpin, who had earlier walked in the inning, with a two-out double. That second inning run stood for the Express. Tavistock was able to close it out in the second game with a 7-0 win in six innings.
Tickets for the U20 Canadians will soon be available through the event’s website https://softball.ca/u20mens/host/tickets.