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Westside fields first ever baseball team in District 4 / 10

October 1, 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

The Westside Secondary School Thunder baseball team made school history with the first ever baseball team from the school entering District 4 /10 competition.

The squad played their first ever game on the road at Hastings Stadium in Guelph on Monday, September 17, against Guelph Collegiate Vocational School.

The team has been a few years in the making.

The idea of a baseball team at Westside has been floated around with player interest over a couple of years and this year they put a competitive team together.

“The students approached me,” explained coach Philip McCloskey. “It was Kieran (Gagnon) who approached me in grade nine or ten. Two years ago we had a three-pitch fun club that was mixed (boys and girls) and we had a lot of players out. 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. I also talked to some neighbors of mine who knew the grade eights and we knew that there was some grade nines coming in that were baseball players. So this year we joined the league and got everything together.”

In District 4 / 10, the teams are entered at the Varsity level, meaning there are no junior and senior divisions.

The Thunder have eight players who are in Grade 9, which is pretty impressive considering they are going up against senior students who more experienced.

With high school baseball getting a quick start on the schedule the team didn’t have much time to practice before their first game. They started tryouts the first week of school and managed to get three practices in before their first game.

“The fall season works for us because all the players are done their regular leagues so their still in good shape and they can keep on player,” McCloskey said. “And there’s no competition with them trying out with other teams. So far we’re losing on small fundamental errors. We have some very talented players and the other players have already shown signs of improvement.”

Even so, the Thunder looked pretty slick on the diamond when they hosted their first home game against St. James Catholic High School from Guelph on Wednesday, September 19, at Princess of Wales Park.

St. James took an early lead in the Wednesday game going ahead 4-0 by the third inning.

The Thunder responded in the bottom of the third when they loaded the bases and scored their opening run on a line-drive.

The next three innings saw the St. James get the bats moving and scoring three in the fifth to end the game with a 10-1 loss for the Thunder.

The Thunder will be back at their home diamond at Princess of Wales Park on Monday, October 1, when they will host the team from Our Lady of Lourdes from Guelph.

The first pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

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