The Quinte Royals Baseball Association is excited for all of its teams as action at the ballparks heats up for the summer.
The Royals appreciate the efforts of their coaches, team managers, umpires, and executive team and look forward to seeing the parks filled with Royal blue in support of our young ballplayers, representing the Quinte region.
Five Quinte Royals rep teams are competing in Eastern Ontario Baseball Association league play this season.
10U Royals
Following a couple of challenging seasons, the 10U Quinte Royals are excited and looking forward to finally getting a full season of baseball under their belts.
The team is hoping to build off of a second place finish in the August Madness Tournament last season. The 2022 season has started out well with a 4-0 start.
Home games are played at Bain Park in Trenton on Saturdays unless the team has a road game scheduled. The Royals have a couple of tournaments scheduled to participate in, including in Kemptville June 17-19 and in Aurora July 8-10.
Team members are Logan Thompson, Griffin Van Gemeren, Hunter Mayer, Jillian Bell, Kohen Couperus, Mason Haggar, Preston Martin, Jack Seeney, Carter Madill, Michael Ampuero, Ryerson Miller and Nolan Bell. The head coach is Chad Thompson and assistant coaches are Todd Haggar and Ivan Ampuero.
12U Royals
Quinte’s 12U Royals got off to a great start, winning their first three games.
For a young team, the pitching and hitting is very strong.
Team members are Henry Martin, Henry Stitt, Ben Stitt, Gabe Larkin, Tyson Cooper, Eric Bell, Talon Dafoe, Tucker Allen, Grayden Howard, Dawson Roth, Brayden Tweedy, Sam Murphy, Dominic Labarge and Logan Hannah.
Home games are playing in Wellington and also at the Melrose diamonds.
The team is grateful for its sponsors, including Task Force Engineering and RC Design as well as Tim Dainard Electric, Great Lawns Property Care and Landscaping, Quinte Paint, OT Group, Allen Insurance and Belleville Nissan.
The 12U are back with the goal of defending their EOBA championship from last season.
13U Royals
The Stirling Carpentry 13U Quinte Royals are excited to be playing a regular EOBA season again.
For most of the players it has been two seasons that they have been able to do this and for five of them this will be their first experience of a proper season since joining the team at various points since 2020. This year their regular season schedule has 18 games, including a 9-0 win over the Kawartha Cubs in the Royals season opener on May 29.
Home games will be played at Don Ogden Park in Trenton just off of Bay Street next to the skate park. The majority of our home games will be doubleheaders on Saturdays again but there will also be three games under the lights in June and July.
To get ready to play in the EOBA playdowns that determine provincial representation, the Royals will compete in the Kingston Thunder tournament during the July 15th weekend.
“It will be a good test as there will be a mix of A and AA teams from across Ontario there that we haven’t seen and we will see what we need to fine tune before the playdowns on the August 12th weekend,” coach Chad Crawford stated.
Two players have been on a Royals roster for six seasons, five that have been together for five seasons and seven that this will be their fourth season together.
Team members are: Logan Fonger, Nathan Miron, Trip Harvey, Jayden Pembleton, Jenson Shaver, Kalen Banks, Hudson Grimmon, Ryan Dunn, Taite Crawford, Tavis McCambridge, Seth Martin and Lorne Miles.
“We have a great group of players again this year and we’re expecting to have another strong season after last year’s August Madness play,” Crawford stated. “I’m really looking forward to having a season that is normal or as close to normal as it can possibly be. Obviously things could change but we’re confident/hopeful that we’ll be able to complete the season without anything shutting it down.
“We’ll be using a few different strategies through the season to get the team prepared for the playdowns in August where the goal is to be there in the final game on Sunday and earn the EOBA 13U A spot at Provincials. The focus is to continue developing as many pitchers as we can and start getting them ready to be able to go into any game during the season or playdowns and pitch as many innings as we need to help the team move forward.
14U Royals
The 14U Quinte Royals team has been busily preparing for the upcoming season, which is highlighted by a 22-game regular schedule including two tournaments in June (one in Kingston and one in Ottawa)
Quinte’s 14U Royals and are looking to peak for their playoffs in early August as they work to challenge for the Ontario Baseball Association championship. The team plays its home games on Saturdays out of the Bayshore diamond in Quinte West.
The team is a core of players that have been together since 10U with a few new additions. The roster consists of returning players Alex Bissett, Carter Rowles, Connor Boates, Colin Launderville, Ethan Thompson, Gavin Gardiner, Jack Stitt, Josh Thompson, Max LaCroix and Nolan Reitzel along with new additions Benjamin Dryfhout and Jack Murphy.
The last two years were tough for the team with not playing any games in 2020 and only about 12 games in 2021. Coach Bill Launderville and the rest of the staff are looking forward to deepening the players fundamentals about the game this year as they move to MLB distances in base lengths and mound length.
“We have a lot of solid arms that are deepening their mechanics on pitching and when you combine that with our strong defence, our timely hitting and our development of fundamentals, it makes us a very competitive team who can challenge for the OBA’s this year,” Launderville stated.
15U Royals
The Quinte Royals 15U team is fired up for their 2022 season.
The Royals will be competing in the EOBA loop, which extends from Kingston to Pickering.
On top of an 18-game regular season, the Royals are entered into the London Badgers tournament June 17-19, as well as the Seaway Surge tournament in Kemptville July 8-10.
In August, the reigning EOBA champs will play host to the EOBA Championship weekend at Rotary Park in Belleville and Bayshore Field in Trenton.
The Royals are hoping to represent at the Ontario Baseball Association provincial championships in Windsor Labour Day weekend.
Team members are: Bryce Mitchell, Jakob Briscoe, Colin Stephens, Mitchell Sills, Oliver Brackenbury, Nathan Soules, Christian Fonger, Curtis Kerslake, Colby Coe, Ben Demille, Nick Martin, Cole Baird and Marcus Forbes.
The coaching staff includes Chris Lisle, Steve Sills, Peter Brackenbury and Trent Stephens.
Learn more about the Quinte Royals at www.quinteroyalsbaseball.com