Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Napanee’s U19 Express girls quest for a medal came up just a run short at Eastern Canadians, held over the weekend in PEI.
A trip to the medal round on the line, the Express fell 4-3 to a New Brunswick team that would go on to capture the bronze medal.
New Brunswick scored four runs in the top of the fourth and was able to hold off the Express rally over the final three innings to secure the victory.
Despite the loss it was still a very successful season for the Express ladies.
“We wanted to win a provincial title, we did that,” said Express head coach Scott Morrow. “We wanted to get to the Easterns and defend our title from two years ago. We came up short but hats off to the east teams. I’ve been to five Eastern Canadians and everyone of them there’s always the Ontario teams that are vying for most the medals, this is the first year ever that I’ve been there that Ontario did not get a medal.”
Morrow noted the Maritime bubble allowed the eastern teams to continue to develop and they made vast improvements over the last two years. As for the Express, it’s been a struggle to play competitive ball since 2019. Heading into the tournament Napanee had played just six games against girls teams over the last two years-they’d go on to play six girls teams over three days in PEI.
Napanee opened the tournament with an 8-0 loss to PEI’s top provincial team. That team would go on to win gold at the tournament.
“They had a good team, they won it all,” Morrow said of PEI. “We didn’t play well but they beat us. That was our first game, we didn’t hit the ball well and made five errors. We started the tournament off on a losing note then we battled back and won the next four.”
Napanee defeated New Brunswick’s second entry 12-1, defeated Nova Scotia’s top team 8-1 and then outslugged PEI’s third team 9-7. Payton Barkley delivered a go ahead home run to put the Express out in front for good.
The Express then took on their Ontario rivals, UTM East from Ajax. The Express trailed late in the game before piecing together a four run rally, highlighted by a home run from Kieran Raymo to ignite a 6-3 victory.
That win gave the Express a chance to advance to the medal round before they run was cut short by the 4-3 loss to the KV Dynamite to place them fourth in the tournament.
With about half the Express roster set to graduate from the U19 level, they will have to decide over the winter whether they want to continue to compete as a U23 team. This core group has the most successful girls team to ever represent Softball Napanee, winning two provincial gold, two silver and three bronze to go with an Eastern Canadians gold in 2019 as well as a pair of fourth place finishes.
A testament to their athleticism, 12 of the 13 players are off to university this year or next and will play softball, hockey or volleyball with their post-secondary schools.