Peewees prove a point
Posted By MIKE KOREEN, THE WHIG-STANDARD

For the Kingston Thunder peewee team, winning the Eastern Ontario Baseball Association championship tournament at home this weekend was a real long shot.

The primary objective was to build confidence for the Baseball Ontario playoffs.

Consider it mission accomplished.

Seeded fourth going into the eight-team event at Woodbine Park, the Thunder went 2-2, advancing to play on the final morning of the tournament on Sunday.

Kingston clearly was a notch below the top two teams in the tournament -- the Clarington Orioles and Peterborough Tigers.

An 11-1 loss against Peterborough on Saturday and a 9-2 tourney-ending versus Clarington on Sunday followed two impressive wins -- Friday night's 15-7 triumph against the Pickering Red Sox and Saturday's 5-3 upset of the No. 3 Port Hope River Rats.

"We're really thrilled with the showing," Kingston coach Randy Casford said after watching Peterborough crush Clarington 12-4 in the final.

"We're excited. (The players) are pretty pumped. They don't like losing, but they understand where we're at. We achieved our goals of making it to Sunday and beating a team ranked higher than us."

The Thunder can build on the weekend in Baseball Ontario playoff play.

Kingston has a 1-0 lead in a best-of-three series against the Quinte Royals. Game 2 is in Belleville on Wednesday night with Game 3, if necessary, back in Kingston later in the week.

The Kingston-Quinte winner meets the Ajax-Whitby winner in a series to determine an entrant for the Ontario peewee A championship in Niagara Falls on Labour Day weekend.

"We're playing teams we have beaten all year long," Casford said. "The table is set for us, but we have to go out there and take it."

An improbable star this weekend for the Thunder was pitcher Will Van Allen, who is not the No. 1 hurler in the rotation. He went the distance in the impressive victory over Port Hope.

"It was an awesome start," Casford said. "A good surprise."

Quinn Cota led the offensive attack with three doubles for the weekend.

"Those two really stood out," Casford said.

What also stood out, in Casford's mind, is the need for the Thunder and the Kingston Baseball Association to join forces next year.

With two different organizations, the talent in the city is split up.

"People are talking now that if we combine, we'll be in the top one or two (in eastern Ontario)," Casford said. "We're there. It hurts a bit knowing that we are better (as a city) than we are (showing with the record). Hopefully next year we'll get things right. It has been way too long."

In the meantime, however, Casford figures his squad is more than capable of competing with many teams from around the province.

"We met expectations this weekend," said Casford, who also will coach an EOBA team at the prestigious Canadian National Exhibition tournament later this month in Toronto. "Our focus is now on Quinte on Wednesday."

Meanwhile, Peterborough also won the championship in the EOBA bantam tournament this weekend at Megaffin Park and Woodbine Park, beating Brockville in the final.

The Thunder went 1-2 under head coach Greg Luchuk, beating Whitby on Friday and losing against Peterborough and Oshawa on Saturday.