Kentville minor baseball teams advance to provincials

BY JOHN DECOSTE

The Advertiser/NovaNewsNow.com

All three Kentville minor baseball teams have a chance to win a provincial championship, with the peewee AA Wildcats having the added advantage of hosting their provincial tournament in Kentville this coming weekend.

“We hadn’t been planning on hosting,” said head coach Lyle Boylen, “but when no one applied, we were contacted by Baseball Nova Scotia and we agreed to host. We haven’t had a whole lot of time to prepare, but we’ll do our best to put on a decent tournament.”

That’s not to suggest the Wildcats, with a 12-2 regular season record to date in the Bluenose League, aren’t deserving of a spot in the tournament on their own merit.

Kentville hasn’t lost a league game since June 29, and according to Boylen, the Wildcats also “should be the favorites” at the league championship tournament Sept. 6-7.

There was no district peewee AA tournament this year as all eight registered teams in the province qualified for provincials. Tri-County, Dartmouth, Halifax, Truro, Clark’s Harbour, Antigonish and Sydney Mines will join the host Wildcats at the tournament, with Tri-County, Dartmouth and Halifax in Kentville’s pool.

Action gets underway at 10 a.m. Friday with Kentville taking on Tri-County on the Bantam field and Truro meeting Clark’s Harbour on the Pony field. Games will continue at 12:30, 3 and 5:30 p.m. with games on each field at each time.

Saturday, games are scheduled for 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., with tiebreakers (if necessary) set for 4 p.m. on each field. The crossover semifinals are set for 10 a.m. Sunday, with the championship game at 2 p.m.

Have a chance

Kentville’s other round robin games will be 3 p.m. Friday against Dartmouth and 10 a.m. Saturday versus Halifax. Boylen feels his team “should have a chance to win or at least reach the final. When we are at our best,” he says, “we are very good.”

He anticipated a competitive provincial tournament, with Clark’s Harbour, Truro, Antigonish and Sydney Mines the favorites along with the host Wildcats.

Kentville players to watch include Jordan Martin, “a true power hitter” and, in coach Boylen’s opinion, “the best player in the Bluenose League and one of the top players in the province”; leadoff hitter Michael Boylen, who leads the team in hits and runs scored and is also a pitcher; first baseman Trent Oickle and outfielder-pitcher Matt Perry.

Meanwhile, both the Kentville major mosquito A and bantam AA Wildcats earned their way to provincials with victories at the district level.

The mosquito Wildcats, in fact, are heading to provincials this weekend in Bridgewater as both district champions and Bluenose League regular season champions.

Kentville won the district title in a four-team tournament with Windsor, Hants North and Hammonds Plains. The Wildcats went 2-1 in the round robin, defeating Windsor 17-4, losing 3-1 to Hants North and swamping Hammonds Plains 30-7.

In the championship game, Kentville turned the tables on Hants North with a 16-4 win. Top players included tournament MVP Logan Moore, Joshua Sullivan (9-12 hitting) and Jacob Lonar who contributed six quality innings of pitching including three in the final.

The mosquito Wildcats then wrapped up the regular season league title Aug. 10 by sweeping an “excellent” Yarmouth team by scores of 6-5 and 13-5.

Coming together

The Kentville bantams, pretty much a 0.500 team for most of the season, are, according to head coach Archie Seamone, “starting to come together at just the right time.”

In a best two-out-of-three district showdown on the road against Hammonds Plains, “a team that had beaten us all year,” Kentville won the first game 10-5 and the second 10-1 to earn the right to represent the district at provincials in Sydney Mines.

Shawn Boudreau was the winning pitcher in the first game, with Jeff Longaphy closing out the game in relief as well as contributing a key RBI triple. Ryan Smith added three singles to the Kentville attack.

In the second game, Kentville broke open a close game with a five-run sixth inning, making a winner out of pitcher Colin Sampson.

Seamone noted, “both games were a lot closer than the final score would suggest.” He anticipated “a tough field” at provincials. “We’ll be there to have fun, play as well as we can and see what happens.”