Beaver Sports
The U17 Napanee Express continued to fine-tune their game as they prepare for next month’s nationals, taking home silver at the provincial championship this weekend in Grafton.
Napanee squared off with the PDP Thunder in the gold medal game, falling 5-3 in a hard fought championship game.
Carter Wright took the mound in the final, putting up a scoreless frame to open the game. Napanee got one run in the second when Luke Paul hit a triple and Dylan Kemp scored him on a sacrifice fly.
PDP then scored two in the bottom half of the second and then two more in the third. Napanee attempted to chip away, picking up a run in the fourth, only to be matched by the Thunder in the bottom half. Napanee got one back in the sixth but could not cash in on anything else in the 5-3 loss.
“As a group, we are starting to peak at the right time, which is great news with Nationals only a week and a half away,” said Express head coach Scott Thompson. “This weekend was a great test for the boys, and they passed with flying colors. We continue to get better offensively and defensively. We are now focusing on the little things that often make a difference in important games”.
Friday night, the Express kicked off the tournament against St. George. The Express got the bats rolling early and often as they went on to victory 9-0 ending it after five innings. Kemp pitched a shutout.
On Saturday, the Express drew the Tara 2006 team. In a nail biter, the teams exchanged runs throughout the game and going into the bottom of the seventh, the Express were down by two. With Paul at the plate and Colton Lecuyer and Kaden Fowler on base, Luke smashed a walk-off home run to win the game 11-10.
The win put the Express in the undefeated game against the strong PDP Thunder team Saturday evening.
The Thunder started off the first by getting two runs and added another in the third to lead 3-0. In the fourth and fifth the Express added single runs in each, clawing it back to a one run game. The teams blanked the sixth and in the seventh the Thunder tacked on four, which could not be matched by the Express.
That meant the Express then had a rematch with Tara 2006. This time, the Express jumped out early in the first inning with four runs on hits from Kaden Fowler and Kemp, who connected on a home run.
The Express added three more in the fourth with a triple from Nate MacDonald and another in the fifth to mercy the Tara team 8-0. Kaden Fowler threw a five-hit shutout.
This advanced the Express to a rematch with PDP in the gold medal game, where they wound up a pair of runs short, but still earned a silver medal for their efforts. Kemp went on to win Top Pitcher for the weekend.
The U17 Fast Pitch Canadians will be held Aug. 2-6 in Fredericton, NB.