By Mark Malone, Chatham Daily News
The Wallaceburg (ON) Tartans were well-armed to make history this season.
A pitching staff led by Grade 12 hurlers Logan Klompstra and Keegan Huber allowed only nine runs in seven games as the Tartans captured their first LKSSAA baseball championship.
That duo combined on a one-hitter in a 5-2 win over the Great Lakes Wolfpack in Thursday’s final at Andy Johnston Field at Kinsmen Park.
“Our pitching has been phenomenal all year (and) carried us through, obviously,” coach Linda Nethery said.
But the Tartans are much more than a two-man team, she added.
They went undefeated while outscoring opponents by a combined 53-9.
“Sometimes you have a sprinkling of really good guys and then not so much after that, but we had a solid team of ball players that all had played high level ball,” Nethery said.
Some won a Baseball Ontario ‘B’ championship this year with the Port Lambton 15U Pirates.
“Obviously you hope for the best, but I think we all had high expectations for the season,” Nethery said.
Brayden Kraayenbrink hit an RBI double and Chase Sites hit an RBI single in the LKSSAA final. Huber and Connor McCallum also had one RBI apiece.
The Tartans were held to four hits, but they drew nine walks.
“We had some timely hits, for sure,” Nethery said. “A couple of walks, good patience at bat and then we had a couple pretty key hits.”
Klompstra gave up two unearned runs in five no-hit innings and Huber pitched the final two frames. Each struck out three.
Now the Tartans wait to learn if they’ll resume playing in the spring when OFSAA holds its baseball championship. LKSSAA won’t announce until March if its teams will be allowed to compete at the OFSAA spring events.
“If they can get through SWOSSAA, they have a shot at making a run at OFSAA,” Wolfpack coach Brian Coleman said.
The Wolfpack won OFSAA gold in 2018 and returned to the tournament in 2019.
“Hats off to Wallaceburg,” Coleman said. “… They were probably my favourite team to play this year. They were good ball players, they were classy, the coaches were awesome. It was actually a really good game.”
