Host East Nepean Eagles in for tough competition
This year, East Nepean is celebrating its 60th anniversary in Little League baseball and the organization can think of no better way to mark that milestone than to send the Eagles back to the Little League World Series in Williamsburg, Pa., slated for Aug. 20-30.
First, though, they have to be bad hosts and win the Canadian Little League Championship, which is being played in Ottawa for the first time.
About a hundred 11- and 12-yearolds, along with their coaches, families and friends, will arrive Wednesday to plenty of fanfare. Play begins on Friday at the Eagles’ Nest main diamond at Ken Ross Park in Barrhaven.
Seven teams will compete to reach the final scheduled for 1 p.m. on Aug. 16. The East Nepean Eagles are taking part along with the Ontario representative the High Park Braves from Toronto.
The Atlantic Region will be represented by the Glace Bay (N.S.) McDonald’s Colonels. British Columbia is sending the White Rock All-Stars and Alberta the Lethbridge SWLL Red Giants.
The field is rounded out with the Moose Jaw (Sask.) AAA All-Stars from the Prairies and the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Lynx from Montreal, who will represent Quebec.
“Things have come together very well,” said Jim Dean, president of Little League Ontario and Ontario District 2 Administrator
“I don’t know much about the teams but you can always expect B.C. to be strong. We were told the White Rock team actually booked their hotel rooms months ago.”
The team from Saskatchewan, which represents the prairie provinces, may have some trouble, Dean says.
Moose Jaw is in Ottawa because the Regina Kiwanis Nationals were unable to make the trip to Ottawa.
“It’s really hard to point at any weak teams in the field with the possible exception of Saskatchewan. I have some concerns about that team from a strength point of view because they only had three teams in their district and it’s a one-district division,” Dean said. “Although they ended up winning, they did not do well in the roundrobin portion of their tournament.
“I’m hard-pressed to find any others that might be weak.”
Each team will play six games during the seven-day, round-robin format with the top four teams playing in the semifinals on Aug. 15. All games are six innings and have a 10-run mercy rule after the fourth inning.
There will also be a special game to close out Saturday as members of the East Nepean Challenger Team play the Ottawa All-Stars. Challenger Baseball is a Little League division for kids ages five to 18 who have a physical or developmental disability.
“It’s the most beautiful thing you’ll ever want to see. I can’t go to one of these games without crying. These kids love the game so much and they get so much joy out of it,” Dean said.
“We’re trying to showcase the Challenger Program. East Nepean has had one for over a dozen years, Kanata started one last year, Orléans has one, Carleton-Russell has one, so we have players from all four of those leagues coming to be part of the Challenger showcase.”
The two tournament semifinals will take place at 12:30 and 3 p.m. and will be followed by the Challenger Game at 6:40 p.m.
The week, though, is about more than just baseball.
The players and coaches will take part in a cultural day at Parliament Hill. And on Aug. 13, there will be a Champion’s dinner featuring former Toronto Blue Jays star Roberto Alomar. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. and will be held at Algonquin College, Building D, Woodroffe Campus, 1385 Woodroffe Ave.
Rogers Television will also broadcast 20 of the 24 games, including three of those in French.