NAPANEE—Napanee Abundant Insulation Express won its first game of the Softball Canada junior men’s championship tournament Thursday night, defeating the Saskatoon Bullets 6-0 in its final game of the preliminary round.
Already locked into ninth place, Abundant Insulation, which finished the round-robin preliminary round 1-7, goes into the consolation draw Friday at 2 p.m. against the eighth-place team, which remains to be determined.
Napanee dominated every facet against a Saskatchewan team that went into the game 2-5, having won two of its previous three games to retain faint hope of finishing sixth and reaching the championship round.
The game remained scoreless through four innings, and Napanee—without a hit to that point—erupted in the fifth, scoring all six of its runs with all seven if its hits. The Express sent 11 men to the plate in a rally highlighted by an RBI triple by No. 9 hitter Zack McCormick; two hits, including a double, by Alex Douglas, and run-scoring singles by Shane McNish, Brandon Tucker and Jeremy Martin.
In his best performance of the tournament, pitcher Luke Severson struck out nine, scattered six hits and didn’t allow a runner past second base.