Thunder peewees keeping busy on the diamond
Posted By DOUG GRAHAM, THE WHIG-STANDARD

The Kingston Thunder peewees are flip-flopping in baseball playoff play and enjoying every inning of it.

The 15 players, under the direction of coach Randy Casford, are in the first playoff series toward the Ontario Baseball Association A division final in Niagara Falls on Labour Day weekend.

After securing a 1-0 series lead by virtue of a 6-1 win over the Quinte Royals in which Thunder pitcher Ben Cross threw a one-hitter, Kingston is taking a hiatus from that best-of-three series to play in the Eastern Ontario Baseball Association peewee championship tournament.

All eight teams from a very competitive major peewee group (players must by born in 1997 or later to be eligible) will be at the three-day tournament at the Thunder's Woodbine Park.

The Thunder, by virtue of a fourth-place finish with a 13-8 record and a winning percentage of .619, will be the No. 4 seed.

The Clarington Orioles, owners of an 18-3 record, are the No. 1 seed for the tournament.

The Peterborough Tigers and Port Hope River Rats also are ranked ahead of the Thunder.

"We're confident against any of them and we have beat all of them," Casford said.

"We have to play the strategic game and save some of our better arms for the later games."

The true double knockout championship will open for the Thunder with an 8:15 Friday night game against the Pickering Red Sox.

The winner of that game will move on to play the winner of a Port Hope-Whitby Chiefs contest at noon on Saturday.

Casford said that while teams like Clarington and Peterborough -- losers of just seven of 42 games between them -- are very good squads, the Thunder are quite capable of playing deep into the tournament.

"It's just a matter of some of those teams have a little more depth and maybe one or two (better) hitters," said Casford, who has Matt Steele, Don Ley and Kevin Fair as assistant coaches.

"We are going to try our best and we have to play our best."

The Thunder's pitching staff includes Cross, Aaron Luchuk, Will Van Allen, Kyle Casford and at least three or four more players capable of contributing some pitching innings.

In their 6-1 playoff win over Quinte Tuesday night, Noah Steele's single drove in two runs in the third inning and Quinn Cota singled home two more in the fourth. Kyle Casford, who is a minor-age peewee, stole five bases while Van Allen went 3-for-3 and it was his great catch that ended the game.

The Thunder's series with Quinte will resume Wednesday night in Belleville. With a victory in that best-of-three series, the Thunder would move on to play the winner between Ajax and Whitby. Ajax leads that series 1-0.

The winning team from the group of four will advance to the OBA peewee A championship in Niagara Falls.

Based on the team's pre-season goal, Randy Casford said the season already has been a success.

"Our goal was not to be in the bottom three (teams) like before," Casford said.

"It was our goal to make the top four and we're right there."

Casford, who has coached at minor levels in both Kingston Baseball Association and Kingston Thunder teams in the past and also has been at the helm of the Kingston Ponies, has another goal for next year.

He would like to see one representative team from the city, taking players from both the Thunder and the KBA, to compete at the EOBA levels at peewee, bantam and midget.

Right now, some are involved in little league play and the others are playing EOBA.

He feels the peewee age group could be quite successful if the union took place.

"Next year might be the turnaround where all the kids get together. I think everyone has seen if we get our best kids together we can be very competitive," Casford said. "I guarantee if we do it, we would be one or two in the league. No doubt."

There is one other coaching gig for Casford this year. He is heading up the EOBA peewee team, which will play in the prestigious Canadian National Exhibition tournament in two weeks in Toronto.

Teams from Michigan, Buffalo and Toronto will join the EOBA squad at the tournament.

Casford is holding one more tryout Thursday in Port Hope before making the final lineup selection. Ideally, he would like to have player representation from each of the eight league teams.

"Nothing is finalized but I should have a couple players from (the Thunder) for sure," Casford said.