Truro steps up to the provincial plate
Friends reunite as Bearcats form 18U AAA baseball team for competitive Bluenose League
The Truro Bearcats are the new kids on the block in provincial 18-and-under AAA baseball, but they’re certainly not strangers to the game or each other.
Fielding a team in the elite Bluenose League, the Bearcats bring together many former teammates from younger divisions in Truro minor baseball or, more recently, the successful high school program at Cobequid Educational Centre.
“Yeah, definitely a lot of guys that have been around baseball a long time and have played in big games,” said Camden Weatherbee, one of the most experienced Bearcats. “I think all of us have probably won provincials already (at one level or another).”
Most notably, Weatherbee was part of back-to-back Nova Scotia 18U AAA championship teams with the Pictou County Highlanders the past two years, while Kaelan Bakker and Spencer Dowe played with the Hants North Jays team that represented the province at the 18U nationals last summer in Fort McMurray, Alta.
All three of those players, and others, welcomed the opportunity to play high-level baseball in their hometown this summer.
“Even last year, we wanted to be playing with the guys we had played with (for most of) our whole lives, but it didn’t work out,” said Weatherbee, who lives in Shortts Lake. “But then, this year when we had the opportunity, we definitely all wanted to be on the same team.”
Dowe’s father Earl did much of the legwork behind the scenes to form the new Truro team.
“He was the one that really got the team off the ground this year,” Weatherbee said. “He had been talking to us all hockey season and high school season about how we’re going to have a team and that I should make sure I was ready to go.”
Weatherbee is indeed ready to go. He’s not only throwing baseballs this spring but also the javelin as part of CEC’s track and field team. Last year, he was a gold-medallist in javelin at the School Sport Nova Scotia provincials. This year’s track provincials are in early June at Beazley Field in Dartmouth, where the Bearcats open their Bluenose League baseball schedule on May 31 against the Dartmouth Arrows.
While he enjoyed a solid run with Pictou County in recent summers, Weatherbee would have been one of just four returning Highlanders, who lost most of their players to graduation and aren’t playing at the 18U AAA level this year. He’ll bring more than a winning pedigree to the Bearcats.
“I definitely want to bring a lot of fun to the team,” said the CEC senior, bound for the University of New Brunswick in the fall. “Winning is a big part of it, but going out almost every day and putting in the practice and all the games we play, it’s a grind. But if we can still have fun and stay loose and play how we know we can play, I think we’ll be successful.”
Weatherbee, 17, anticipates he’ll likely play shortstop most frequently. “We have a lot of depth all over the place this year, so I could see even pitching and playing anywhere in the infield, really.”
Veterans like Bakker and Dowe are also expected to be versatile Bearcats.
“Kaelan is definitely a guy you want on your team,” Weatherbee said of Bakker. “He does everything well. Defensively, he’s sound, he hardly ever makes errors. At the plate, he’s always getting on base. He’s a great bat at the top of the lineup. He’ll be on the mound for us, too, this year. He’ll definitely throw a lot of innings.
“Spencer (Dowe) is who you’d want at centre field. Sort of like the (Toronto Blue Jays’) Kevin Kiermaier of our team, per se, where he locks it down out there. Then he gets up to bat and he’ll get on base and he’ll steal a lot of bases.”
The new-look Bearcats include even more 18U AAA experience with Cumberland County players like Aidan McBurnie, Gregor Millard and Nolan McNally. Last summer, all three of them played with the Cape Breton Ramblers team that hosted the Canadian Senior Little League championship at Sydney Mines.
Truro’s head coach is Darson Murphy, a former senior Bearcat. Murphy’s son Malky is one of the youngsters with the new club.
The Bearcats’ home-opener is against the Hammonds Plains A’s on June 1 at the Stadium-1 field.
Including five players from Cumberland County, Truro’s 13-man roster is: Kaelan Bakker, Spencer Dowe, Alex Field, Max Greatorex, Trey Smith-Johnson, Kyah Lovell, Aidan McBurnie, Jake McDonald, Nolan McNally, Gregor Millard, Malky Murphy, Carter Sharpe and Camden Weatherbee.
The 18U AAA Bearcats are planting a seed for potential junior (22U) and senior teams in Truro in future years. Colchester County has produced a dugout full of young talent lately with the likes of Seth MacPherson, Carter Higgins, John DeCoste and Eric Fields. MacPherson is back with the provincial 17U team this summer. Higgins is playing 22U in Dartmouth before heading off to junior college baseball in Missouri. DeCoste and Fields were junior college freshmen this year and both pitchers are teammates this summer with the Cortland Crush of the New York Collegiate Baseball League.