Cornhuskers capture New Lowell tournament title

August 13, 2013 · 0 Comments

The Nobleton Cornhuskers were crowned 2013 New Lowell Tournament champions. Shown are (back, l to r) John Jones, Wayne Boudreau, Johnathon Berriault, Mike Leclef, Luc Boric, Trevor Berriault, Jake Friskney, Glenn Robinson, Steve Scobie, Ross Pyne, (front) Eric Mcloughlin, Eric Jones, Steve Haak, Dan Rees, Kyle Hall, Jeff Pyne.
Photo by David Anderson

By Jeff Doner
The Nobleton Cornhuskers baseball team somewhat redeemed themselves from a mediocre season after recently winning the New Lowell Knights baseball tournament.
It wasn’t easy as they faced some stiff competition en route to earning the title of tournament champions, including an 8-5 win over the Merritton Alliance in the finals.
Eric Jones said it was a big win for his club, who just completed their first season in the North Dufferin Baseball League.
“It felt pretty good, because we weren’t even supposed to get in the tournament,” he explained. “They added another team, so we got in to keep the numbers even, but yeah, it felt good.
“It seems like you can either win or lose on any given day. We had a bit of an easier schedule going into the championship game, which was good for us, and the other team we played had four games, where we only had three, but a win is a win.”
The championship game featured some highlight reel plays and some big performances.
Cornhusker Eric McLoughlin, who dinged a few home runs during the season, provided some heroics against Merritton when the game was all tied up in the third inning.
McLoughlin, known for having a bit of pop in his bat, hit a grand slam to put his team up 7-2.
“I was sitting on a fastball and turned on it when I saw it. I knew I got all of it when I made contact,” he said.
As important as it was, he was modest about taking too much of the credit for his team’s big win.
“It was a great weekend all around for our team,” he said. “Our bats were alive right from the start which made it easy for our starters. The defence came up big when we needed them to as well, bailing us out of some tough situations.”
McLoughlin was even named tournament MVP for his play throughout the weekend for Nobleton.
After a rough season where they managed only five wins in 26 games, the Cornhuskers seemed to come together at the right time, also beating league rivals Lisle and Midland to make it to the finals.
Newcomer Trevor Berriault, who will most likely be playing with the team full time next season, started the game for Nobleton, pitching three solid innings before Jones came in to close it out.
They then handily beat Lisle 11-5 in the first day of tournament action with Steve Scobie starting that game on the bump.
Midland was next in line and the Cornhuskers faced a bit more of a challenge from them.
Jones got the start and pitched all seven innings, with five strikeouts in a close 7-6 victory.
Knowing they were going to be missing a few players, a few reinforcements stepped in and really helped out. If all goes to plan, Jones said those players will be returning to play for the Cornhuskers next season.
First baseman Dan Rees agreed that the new faces helped out his team quite a bit.
“They played really well,” he said. “One guy came in and played second base for us the whole time and Trevor (Berriault) pitched really well, especially in the championship game. He did great.”
Rees also said the team finally started playing the way he envisioned.
“Since the last time we talked when I said, if we had maybe strung together a couple more solid hits, then we would play like a proper team and I feel like we did that this weekend,” he said in his assessment of their tournament play.
“I feel like we all came together. We were hitting the ball really well, our defensive play was a lot better; we cut down on a lot of errors that normally would have happened in other games.”
If their tournament win is indicative of what this team can do, Rees said it bodes well for the club looking ahead to next season.
“I figure we’re going to be a much more solid team. I think next year we’re hopefully going to start a little earlier and maybe get a bit of indoor training going as well and get a solid base going into the season rather than finding it halfway through.”