Stingers capture OBA title
Practice made champions of the Beamsville Stingers.
The Stingers put in endless hours of extra work in preparation for the Ontario Baseball Championships in Windsor last week which paid off in an U11 B Division championship.
The championship was the second for the Stingers, who won in the D Division two years ago. There were no OBA championships held in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.
“Since we are a D centre playing up in the B/C division we really didn’t know what to expect,” Stingers head coach Dustin Wiley said. “At the end of the day, with the amount of time we put in working on fundamentals, practising, getting the boys in a position to be successful based on the time we put in, I thought we wouldn’t be in a bad situation. At least were going to compete when we got to those games.”
Wiley, who was assisted by Harley Thompson, Kurt Whitnell, Greg Walker and Trevor Twardawa, said it was a total team effort.
“All players were called upon and all players stepped up,” he said. “If it was pitching, if it was hitting, there were a variety of levels, but I can say from my observations and from what the scorebook shows, every single player, minors and majors, put forth a valiant effort and we were fortunate to come out on top.”
Wiley also said everyone checked their egos when they arrived at the ballpark.
“Everybody bought in to the process and what the coaches were asking them to and were flexible to making those adjustments to make the team better and make themselves better.”
The tournament was composed of two six-game series. In round 1, the Stingers went 5-1 to advance to the championship bracket where they again won five of six games to capture the championship.
The final two games were highlighted strong pitching by Koren Fife and Brayden Walker.
First, they topped Lasalle, the top-seeded team in the tournament, with Maddon Smith scoring Walker for the first run of the game on a ground out. The game was tied 3-3 in the fifth when Paxton Kot doubled and scored the go-ahead run. Robert Cormier, Cash Wiley and Fife all had multiple hits.
The final game against Listowel was 9-4 triumph led by Cormier and Carter Thompson on the mound. Lucas Whitnell led things off with a single scoring the first run while Thompson and Wiley later crushed home runs in the fifth and sixth innings. The Stingers also played flawlessly in the field.
Other member of the team are: Reid Twardawa, Chase Schilstra, Maddox Gerow and Cole Kirchner.
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