New Lowell Knights take the NDBL pennant
New Lowell Knights claimed the North Dufferin Baseball League pennant by winning the league with a 20-3-3 record, five points better than second place Aurora Jays, 19-7-0.
In the past decade, the Bolton Brewers were the best team in the league but the club decided to compete at the Greater Toronto baseball level.
The Brewers found the new league to be tough ending up in second last place.
New Lowell is hoping to be the new team to beat.
New Lowell never looked back after starting the season strongly. Behind good pitching, timely hits, powerful bats and bringing over slugger/pitcher Todd Gowan to the team, the team has won. The club also persuaded the most decorated coach in modern NDBL history manager Pete ‘Hammer’ Kinghan to come out of retirement to lead the team. Obviously, he has done a good job.
If any teams are likely to stop the Knights, the Aurora Jays and the defending league champion Ivy Leafs are the contenders. The Jays have always been tough but has never found a way to win it all. The Leafs came on strong over the end of the season to finish third with an 18-7-1 record. They own the league’s best pitcher in Brad Grieveson, a native of Creemore.
Creemore Barons and Creemore Braves were in the hunt all season but failed to deliver in the final week and did not make the playoffs. Only the top eight teams qualify in the 14-team senior loop. The Barons won a few more games than the Braves, 11-14-1 versus 9-15-2, finishing 10th and 11th.
Clearview Orioles are also in the mix having posted an enviable 17-8-1 record to narrowly finish behind Ivy.
The remaining four teams to make the playoffs were .500 level teams:
Bolton Dodgers, 14-12-0, Barrie Angels, 13-11-2, Orangeville Giants, 12-12-2, and Mansfield Cubs, 12-12-2.
Midland Indians missed the playoffs just barely, 12-13-1, confirming that to qualify for the playoffs a club needs to win or tie at least half the games.
Finishing behind the Creemore teams were the Lisle Astros, Angus Black Sox and Nobleton Cornhuskers.
Winning the Junior division regular season was the Aurora Jays with a
15-5 record. Creemore Barons finished second, one point behind, 14-5-1.
Alliston, Ivy, Collingwood, and Orillia finished third through sixth.
In the Junior playoffs, fourth place Ivy Ranges, 8-8-4 upset Aurora with two wins, 7-6 and 5-2 to advance to the championship series. Creemore and Alliston, 11-7-2, split their first two games 3-4 and 12-2. Four points is needed to win a playoff series. The clubs played again Wed. (score unavailable at time of writing the article).
This coming weekend New Lowell is the hot place to be to watch baseball.
The Knights are hosting one of the top baseball tournaments in the province. Sixteen teams are competing. Many of the teams are from the NDBL but there are at least four clubs that are travelling long distances to play here.
A horseshoe tournament and corn roast are planned as well.
Labour Day weekend is when Ontario teams compete for an OBA championship. This September, a number of NDBL teams are vying for a provincial title including New Lowell, Clearview, Lisle, Ivy, Angus and both Creemore teams.
Classifications now start at AAA and descend to C. Back in the old days, the clubs would have been considered taking a run at A through DD titles.
For example, the Knights are going to Kendal to compete at AA, previously this would have been B.
Clearview is headed to Port Lampton in the A (formerly C) round; Ivy, Lisle, Creemore Barons and Creemore Braves travel to Wyoming for a chance to win a B championship (D); and Angus hopes to claim a C title (DD).
Finally, have you heard that former Detroit Wings tough guy and Stanley Cup champion Aaron Downey is operating a fitness-training centre for local athletes around Honeywood? From what I’ve heard it is the type of place Rocky Balboa would want to train at.
