Adam Prudhomme
Editor
A handful of the province’s top U17 fast pitch teams will be in Napanee this Saturday and Sunday for a tune-up tournament ahead of the OASA Eliminations.
Napanee’s U17 Express boys will play host at the Fairgrounds, welcoming teams from Tara, Oshawa, Drumbo, St. George, Stittsville, Wilmot as well as an entry from Quebec.
Napanee will be in Pool A, which includes Wilmot, Stittsville and St. George, playing their games on the Richard Dickson Diamond.
The Express will play at 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday, with the Sunday playoff matches to be determined. Sunday games will be played at 9 a.m., 11 a.m. with the finals scheduled for 1 p.m.
“It’s a good tournament to see where we measure up going forward and what we need to work on,” said Express coach Scott Thompson. “We’ve got two weeks (after the tournament) to work on some things and see what we can do to get ready to be ready when the big games are on the line for eliminations.”
Those eliminations will take place June 30-July 2 in Stratford, with teams playing for a trip to Canadians.
Much of Napanee’s U17 team is made up of players from last year’s U15 national champion team.
“We have primarily a younger group from last year with a couple of second year leaders,” said Thompson. “We’re really looking to make some noise this year. I think we’ve got the team that can surprise a lot of people even though we’re a lot of first year kids.”
The Express roster is made up of: Dylan Kemp (Napanee), Kayden Thompson (Napanee), Kaden Fowler (Inverary), Deke Osterhout (Plainfield), Bryce Rebertz (Arnprior), Finn Barton (Renfrew), Colton Lecuyer (Fitzroy Harbor), Aidan DeFazio (Napanee), Owen Kish (Napanee), Nate Macdonald (Trenton), Derek Li (Napanee) and Carter Wright (Stirling).
To stay sharp throughout the summer, they’ve been playing against older teams league play.
“Our boys are up every Thursday night against good men’s teams,” said Thompson. “It’s been really good for them, we’ve seen them hang in and play in a couple tough games and show themselves as good enough to play with them which is big for us. It’s been a really good year so far.”
This weekend’s tournament is part of a busy summer at the Fairground diamonds. June 30 to July 2 Softball Napanee will be hosting the OASA U15 Boys Eliminations. July 21-23 will be the PSWA U13 Girls Qualifier and July 28-30 will be the PWSA U15 Girls Qualifier. They’ll close the season by hosting a national tournament, Aug. 15-20 with the Men’s Canadian Fast Pitch Championship.