Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Never is it a given that the top two teams are going to meet in the gold medal of any given Fast Pitch Canadian Championship, but in Sunday’s U20 finals in Napanee, that’s exactly what the fans got.
Unfortunately for the host Napanee Express the Tavistock Athletics were the better team, weathering the sweltering heat to hold on for the 8-3 win.
Athletics catcher Aaron Waugh drove in three to capture the game’s MVP award. Two of those runs came as part of a pivotal four-run third inning, which saw the Athletics grab a 5-2 lead and never look back. Napanee got to Athletics starter Will Schlotzhauer for a pair of quick runs in their first at-bat. He’d settle in the pitch the complete game, allowing just a run in the sixth when Joe Mick singled in a run with two outs to trim the A’s lead to 6-3. Napanee still had two runners on in the inning when Ty Franklin blooped a ball over the third base side of the infield that fell just to the left of the foul line. He’d later ground out to end the inning, ending Napanee’s last rally of the game.
Tavistock added two more in their half of the sixth and then slammed the door in the seventh.
The loss finished the silver medalist Express’ weekend at 8-2.
“It was awesome, I’d never been here before,” said Mick of reaching the finals. “It was just fun to play in front of the hometown crowd with them behind us, it was pretty awesome. We didn’t quite finish it off, but we’d like to thank Napanee for a great week. The support was awesome.”
Robbie Barker of the Napanee U20 Express takes a healthy swing during Sunday’s gold medal final. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
Tavistock would be the only team to solve Napanee all week long. The Express took the first meeting 10-1 in round robin play before the Athletics flipped the script in Saturday’s playoff game as this time they came out with the 12-6 victory.
That win advanced Tavistock directly the gold medal game while the Express had to face the Hagersville-Haldimand Heat on Sunday morning-the winner going to the finals, the loser going home with the bronze.
The Heat went up 1-0 in the second before the Express were able to scratch out the tying run with a sac fly in the fourth. They then erupted for six in the fifth with Gavin Gibbons driving in a pair while Gavin Brooks and Ty Branchaud added one each. Connor Brooks pitched a complete game for the win, allowing just three hits while striking out 13.
That set up the Express and Athletics final, a rematch of the eliminations earlier this year when the Athletics won the second of their two meetings, the second being a winner-take-all to enter Canadians as the top Ontario seed.
Tavistock’s Will Schlotzhauer would bend but not break, allowing three runs over seven innings for the win. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
“For the last two years it’s been really back and fourth, if anyone was going to take us down, it was them,” said Mick. “All good on them, they had a great week and congratulations.”
Large crowds showed up for the tournament, which ran from Aug. 2-7, for every game, but particularly for Express games.
“It’s pretty surreal, everyone gets behind you and it’s pretty awesome,” Mick said of playing in Napanee.
The tournament was so much fun, Softball Napanee will get to do it all again next summer. When they were awarded the 2022 event, it was announced they would also host in ’23 as well. With much of this team eligible to return, they’ll have that little bit of extra motivation for next season.
The Napanee U20 Express won silver at the 2022 U20 Fast Pitch Canadians, played in Napanee. Photo by Adam Prudhomme.
Softball Napanee turned back the clock prior to Friday’s Express game against the Rosebud Junior Royals, welcoming members of the 1982 Napanee Legionnaires to the field for a special ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of their Midget Canadians championship, the first in the history of Napanee, which was also done on home turf at the King Street Park diamonds. Throwing out the first pitch prior to the game was Grayson Rowe, batboy for the current U20 Express as well as member of the U11 Express, to his grandfather and member of the ’82 team, Bryce Rowe.