Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Napanee’s U15 Express boys are headed to Nationals for the first time in their collective softball careers.
Napanee punched their ticket following a full day of ball on Sunday in Grafton where they finished as runner ups at the OASA Eliminations. Their tournament run came to an end with a 10-5 loss to the Wilmot Thunder in the finals. Despite the loss, their finish was enough to qualify them for their first Canadians, which begin Aug. 3 in Wilmot.
“It was an excellent weekend for us all around,” said Express coach Scott Thompson. “We knew as soon as we saw the bracket that we were going to have a tough weekend. We had the two best, arguably, in the province on our side with us. So the three of us had to play each other so we had to be on point all weekend.”
Napanee opened the tournament Friday with a 7-0 mercy win over Havelock. Dylan Kemp pitched a complete game two-hit shutout, striking out 10. Kayden Thompson had a hit while Deke Osterhout went 2-for-4.
Kemp came out Saturday with another strong outing, pitching a complete game in Napanee’s 5-1 win over St. George. Napanee’s patient approach at the plate allowed them to have plenty of traffic on the bases all game, though they struggled at times to get the big hit and left the bases loaded four out of their seven innings. Still it was enough to pick up the victory and remain undefeated.
That win advanced them to their first meeting with Wilmot of the tournament. Napanee fell behind 3-0 early but rallied back in the fourth when Matthew Airhart led off with a double followed by a single from Brody Nielissen and a single by Owen Kish. Osterhout clobbered a home run to tie it but the Thunder were able to seal the win with a lead-off triple in the bottom of the seventh which eventually came around to score for the walk-off.
With the loss the Express had to play for their tournament lives against Chatsworth. Napanee came out swinging with a lead off triple from Osterhout followed by an Airhart double and a triple from Kish to grab a 4-0 lead. Kemp added a homer in the third and spun another gem in an 11-2 victory.
Napanee kept it going with an 8-1 win over St. George courtesy hits from Airhart, Logan Willis and Bryce Rebertz. Osterhout added another homer to power the Express to a mercy win to officially clinch their spot at nationals.
In the semifinal game the Express turned to Kayden Thompson to start, pitching the team to a 6-5 win over the Tara Twins. Leading 6-0 after four, the Twins rallied for five in the sixth before the Express turned to Willis to close out the win.
With the win the Express advanced to the finals needing to beat Wilmot twice to win the tournament while the Thunder needed just one victory. Napanee rolled to a 10-0 victory in the first game before falling 10-5 in the winner-take-all.
“Sunday we got on the field for warm up at 8 a.m. and we got off at 5:30 p.m. for the last game, back-to-back-to-back-to-back,” said coach Thompson. “It was great to watch the growth of them from Friday to Sunday afternoon, just in approach at the plate, defensively, everything.”
For his efforts from the pitcher’s circle, Kemp was named the tournament’s top pitcher.
“Dylan threw the first five games for us and got us to the point where we qualified and then he was starting to get pretty stiff and sore so he ended up playing second base and hitting,” said Thompson. “Then Kayden Thompson and Logan Willis threw us the rest of the way through Sunday.”
Next up for the Express is the OASA provincials, this weekend in Drumbo where they’ll look to exact some revenge on Wilmot. After that they’ll set their sights on Nationals in August.