Tri-county teens on N.S. 15U squad
A couple of tri-county teenagers are on the Nova Scotia 15U baseball team that will represent the province later this summer at the national championships in Ontario.
Nash Crowell of Yarmouth County is in his second year with the provincial squad and Jacobie Ford of Digby County is in his first.
Crowell, who just turned 15, is a Port Maitland resident who attends Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School, although he won’t be returning to YCMHS in the fall. Instead, he and his family are planning to move out west, where Crowell will pursue his baseball and academic ambitions at a Calgary-area high school.
Ford is a 14-year-old from Weymouth who attends St Mary’s Bay Academy and also is in Grade 9.
Darren Doucette, head coach of the Nova Scotia 15U team, shared some thoughts on both players in a recent interview.
“Nash plays third base (and) he’ll pitch,” Doucette said. “He’s one of those guys that we’re going to look to drive runs in for us. He’s going to bat in the middle of our lineup. He’s got a lot of power. He hits the ball very hard, so we’re looking for him to be an RBI guy for us and be a leader offensively.”
Referring to Ford, Doucette said, “Jacobie’s basically a utility player. We feel comfortable to basically put him anywhere in the field. We feel like he can play any position for us, which is a huge asset to have. His primary position is catcher.”
The provincial team will play a schedule of about 20 games, Doucette said, with the nationals scheduled for the latter part of August in Oshawa.
When not playing with the provincial squad, Crowell and Ford will play with their regular clubs. For Crowell, this is the Tri-County Rangers, a team he played with last year as well. (The Rangers cover the Bedford-Sackville-Fall River area, so it’s not the same “tri-county” region served by the Vanguard.)
Asked about the Rangers in the early going of the 2018 season, Crowell said, “It looks like we’re going to have a good team this year.” The Rangers had won three of their first four games. Crowell had delivered at the plate with some solid hits and had made some nice plays in the field.
The Rangers are members of the Bluenose 15U AAA division.
As for the provincial squad, Crowell said, “It should be a good season. We’ve got a good bunch of guys.”
One of Crowell’s new teammates this year on the Nova Scotia team is Ford, whose regular club is the Weymouth Firebirds, members of the Bluenose 15U AA division. The Firebirds were 4-0 after their first four games this year.
Ford said he looks forward to playing with the provincial team, particularly getting to go to nationals.
“I feel like that would be quite an experience,” he said.
For Crowell, meanwhile, when the nationals end, he and his family will be relocating to Alberta, where Crowell will enter Foothills Composite High School in Okotoks, near Calgary. It’s a school renowned for its baseball program and, given how serious Crowell is about baseball, it’s where he wants to be.
He is intent on making the most of the opportunity, he said, and he sounds ready for the challenge.
“I’ve just got to stay focused, keep on the grind,” he said. “That’s what I want to do.”