Listowel beat Goderich 22-0 and Belle River 14-11 to the OBA Qualifier in Sarnia. The 2 wins means that Listowel will be participating in OBA “B” Division on the Labour Day Weekend.
As part of a pilot project the OBA decided that all Peewee teams that where B, C or D classification would participate in a weekend qualifier in Sarnia. From that weekend’s results they would determined what level each of the 32 peewee teams would compete in for the OBA Championships on the Labour Day weekend. The teams where randomly drawn from a hat to set up the 4 x 8 team tournaments.
Listowel first game would be against a familiar opponent, Goderich. Despite playing in the same league the short-handed Seahawks had never faced the Listowel OBA roster and after 3 innings they probably don’t want to again. The locals pounded out 17 hits over the 3 innings on route to a 22-0 mercy. Game 2 would prove to be a good game as Listowel would face Belle River. This see-saw affair had a little bit of everything… timely hitting, good pitching and great defense. The young Legionnaires found themselves tied heading into their home half of the 6th inning. Then with 2 outs the local came up with several key hits pushing 4 runs across. This would prove to be the difference as the pitching & defense would hold strong in the top of the seventh securing the 14-11 win. The 2 weekend victories mean that Listowel will be competing in Stratford on the LDW in the OBA “B” Championships (the highest level any Listowel team has attempted in the town’s minor baseball history).
Team members Front(L-R) Drew McKee, Caleb Warren. Middle Row (L-R) Parker Yungblut, Jacob Thornback, Jarrett Patenaude, Owen Bender, Ben Bowman. Back Row (L-R) Ted Nichol, Riley Conners, Blake Nichol, Chris Enders.