October 22, 2018 · 0 Comments
By Brian Lockhart
For the first time ever the Westside Thunder met the Centre Dufferin Royals on a baseball diamond.
While Centre Dufferin has had a team for a few years this was the first year that Westside has entered a baseball team in the District 4 / 10 high school league.
Westside put the team together after getting organized over a couple of years.
“Two years ago we had a three-pitch fun club that was mixed and we had a lot of players out,” said Thunder coach, Philip McCloskey. “Last year we had a baseball team that played some exhibition games and we had 16 to 18 players come out. We wanted to make sure we had enough interest.”
In high school baseball, teams usually rely on player who have had experience playing in summer leagues. The skills required for the sport mean previous experience batting and fielding will make a huge difference when up against other teams.
There is also the need for a few players who can pitch. Without a few experienced pitchers the season will most likely be a disaster.
Westside met up with CDDHS on October 9, at Princess of Wales Park in
Orangeville.
Both teams have struggled this year – they were playing well but just couldn’t get any games on the plus side.
In this game the Thunder had a huge first inning bringing in seven runs to start the game.
The Shelburne team scored in the second inning then brought in two more runs in the third to challenge.
Westside had another big inning in
the fourth bringing in three runs to lead the game 10-3.
The final three innings saw both
teams having little luck on offence.
The Thunder left the diamond with their first win of the season and recorded an 11-6 score to end the game.
The Westside team played their final two regular season games taking an 8-6 loss to Our Lady of Lourdes on October 10, and a 7-0 loss to J.F. Ross on October 11.
The District 4 / 10 playoffs were scheduled to get underway on Monday, October 15, in Guelph with all
eight District teams heading into the
quarter-final. However rain forced the cancellation of those games and the opening round was moved to the following day, Tuesday, October 16.
Results were not available at press time.
The Thunder are scheduled to meet the undefeated first place John F. Ross CVI team.
Centre Dufferin will be up against the second place squad from Our Lady of Lourdes.
Both games are scheduled for 3:00 p.m.