Adam Prudhomme
Editor
The Napanee U14 Express with their provincial banner after winning first in Napanee.
Missing two of their top pitchers to injury heading into the Sunday’s OASA Provincials gold medal game, the host Napanee U14 Express had a third ace up their sleeve.
Logan Willis took the circle for the final and delivered a gem, pitching the Express to an 8-0 victory over Baden to clinch the Ontario title in front of a rocking crowd at the Napanee Fairgrounds.
“He took the circle for the last game and a half and didn’t allow a run and took the team on his back and everyone rallied behind him,” said Express head coach Scott Thompson.
The Express turned to Willis after both Kayden Thompson and Dylan Kemp were unable to start due to injuries.
Napanee opened the tournament with a 12-5 win over St. George, highlighted by an inside the park Deke Osterhout-giving him the honour of being the first player to win the Express’ own home run jacket.
After a 6-4 loss Saturday to Baden on Saturday evening, the Express held on for a 3-1 win over St. George Sunday morning to advance to finals, toping Baden 8-2 in the first game to force a second winner-take-all, which the Express won 8-0.
Willis was named the tournament MVP while Kemp was named the Top Pitcher. Thompson said they received contributions up and down the lineup.
A provincial title in hand, the Express are now set to take part in the Eastern Canadians, Aug. 19-22 in New Brunswick.
“We’re on a really good page with everybody,” said Thompson. “Hopefully when we get down here we get a really good showing. Everybody’s really exciting for it and I think we’re peaking at the right time.”
The Napanee U19 Express went undefeated at eliminations in Cambridge.
-Napanee’s U19 Express men also captured gold this weekend, going undefeated at Eliminations in Cambridge.
The Express were an unstoppable force, winning all five games via the mercy rule.
“It was very exciting weekend for us,” said Express head coach Cory Brooks. “We’ve been working hard at getting to the point where we hoped to be. With COVID and everything going on you don’t know how much practice you can get and how many games you get.”
Once the team took the field, they showed they were more than capable of playing with the top teams from across Ontario.
“A lot of things worked in our favour, the bunting, the hit and run, the whole dynamic of the whole game really worked out well for us,” said Brooks. “The boys really did show up and come to play. It was 110 per cent a whole team effort, we used everyone on our bench as much we can with the shortened games because of the mercies.”
Express ace Connor Brooks was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Pitcher, winning four of the team’s five games. He was quick to credit his catcher Joe Mick for the achievement and shared the award with him.
“They seem to be pushing each other to be better,” Brooks said of the team’s battery. “It’s awesome that Connor respects (Mick) enough to share the award with him because you got have both guys on the same page to have a weekend like that.”
Lachlan Stover picked up Napanee’s other win, firing a two-hitter against Port Perry.
The U19 Express will also take part in Eastern Canadians, Aug. 19-22 in NB.
Napanee’s U10 Red finished first at provincials in Drumbo while Express Blue finished as runner-ups.
-At the U10 Provincials it was an all Napanee final in Drumbo, with Napanee Red squeaking out a 10-9 victory over Napanee Blue on Sunday.
Noah Raycroft delivered the winning hit, driving in the winning run with two outs in the seventh to break a 9-9 tie.
Napanee Red went undefeated in the tournament, beating New Hamburg 20-0 in the semifinals. Napanee Blue topped Havelock 8-5 to set up the all Napanee finals.
Kendal Hunter had a strong performance at the plate, going 12-for-14 while Grayson Rowe either pitched or caught every game fro the Express.
“All those kids all play together all the time,” said Express head coach Ryan Rowe. “At the beginning of the year we just kind of went you here, you there, you here, you there, just trying to make them as even as possible so we had someone to play against. The goal was to develop as many players as we could. It was good that we had two teams because we had 24 ball players that we kept in Express uniforms developed them all year long.”
Rowe said it was a testament to Softball Napanee’s program to see two Express teams meet in the final.
“It was nice to see all the hard work and dedication from the kids, coaches has come together and everyone was able to see it this weekend and we got to reap some of the benefits from all the hard work that we put in over the last few years,” said Rowe. “That was the nice thing about the weekend, it was nice winning gold, nice winning silver but just for the fact the Softball Napanee U10 program is where we envisioned it being a few years ago.”