Provincial Three-peat for Thunder in 2006

Kingston Thunder Peewee team wins Ontario Championship

The Peewee Thunder hosted the Ontario Baseball Association Peewee B Championship at Woodbine Park on September 1st - September 4th. The Thunder were defending Champions. Last year the Thunder hosted the tournament and went 5-0 defeating the Bolton Braves 4-0 in the championship game to win the Gold. That was the Thunders second straight OBA championship. In 2004 the Thunder won the Mosquito B OBA championship in St. Thomas defeating the Welland Mustangs 3-1 in the finals.

This year the Thunder would again go undefeated at 5-0 to win the Gold. In the opening Cole Kaiser took the hill for the Thunder. Kaiser left after 4 innings with the lead. Kris Grant pitched the final three innings as the Thunder went on to win the game 6-1 over the Oakridge Reds. Kaiser struck out 6 and Grant struck out 4. Grant also had three hits.

The win put the Thunder against the Chatham A's for their second game. Brandon Fair got the start. The A's took an early lead on the Thunder and were leading 6-2 after three innings. The Thunder fought back to score 8 runs and win the game 10-6. Tyler Allen came on in relief for Fair and pitched well for four innings picking up the victory.

Game three was Saturday night against the Welland Mustangs. Keli Grant got the start. After three innings of play the score was tied at 3. The game was called for rain and would be started over Sunday. Keli Grant took the mound on Sunday and went 4 strong innings shutting down a strong Mustangs offence. Grant left the game with a 5-3 lead. Cole Kaiser came on in relief and pitched 3 solid innings for the save. The final was 5-3.

Sunday night the Thunder took on the Oakridge Reds. A Thunder win would put them in the finals against Welland with the Mustangs having to win twice and the Thunder only once. The Thunder bats were alive from the very first pitch jumping to a 6-0 lead in the first two innings. The Thunder would never look back going on to score 15 runs. Starter Kris Grant pitched a brilliant game leaving after 4 innings with a no hitter. Tournament pitching restrictions stating that pitchers who pitch 5 innings or more in day are unavailable for the next day was the reason for Grants departure with an intact no hitter. Tyler Allen came on to pitch the final three innings as the Thunder rolled to a 15-4 victory.

Monday morning the Thunder and Welland would play for the championship.The Mustangs would have to come back and beat the Thunder twice and the Thunder needed only one victory for the championship. Cole Kaiser got the start. After 4 innings the score was knotted at 0-0. The Mustangs scored the games first run in the top of the 5th. The Thunder would answer back with 3 runs in the bottom half of the inning. Kaiser shut the Mustangs down in the top of the 6th. The bottom of the inning brought 5 more runs for the Thunder giving them a 8-1 lead. In the 7th Kris Grant came on in relief of Kaiser and slammed the door shut.

Kingston Thunder Peewee team: 1 Brandon Cross, 2 Cole Kaiser, 4 Bryer Clancy, 7 Jacob Riha, 8 Tyler Allen, 14 Eric Tunnacliffe, 16 Brandon Fair, 28 Robbie Meyers, 60 Kevin Thompson, 62 Keli Grant, 63 Kris Grant, Coaches: 17 Sean Adamson, 15 Matt Steele, 26 Trevor Lamendeau.