The Kings County Baseball League opened its 22nd season last Saturday evening in Stratford.
Josh Kirkpatrick pitched a complete game as the Stratford Murphy Pharmacy had a 9-3 win over the Morell Chevies. Marshall Ellis and Andrew MacNevin homered for the Pharmacy while Shawn MacDougall had three hits and a pair of RBIs. Craig Lawlor took the loss and Desi Doyle had two hits for the Chevies
Sunday afternoon in Peakes, the Bombers began their defense of the KCBL championship with a solid 12-4 beating of the Northside Brewers. Joseph Gardiner had the big bat with a pair of home runs and five RBIs. Stephen Birt, with a three run blast, and Grant MacEwan also homered for the winning Bombers. Robbie Phelan pitched well in earning the win. Jason MacLean absorbed the loss and Mitchell Ryan homered in a losing cause for the Brewers.

Flashback ... It is Sept 3, 2006 and the Peakes Bombers are trying to defend their Kings County Baseball League title from 2005. The Bombers hold a slim one run lead over the Northside Brewers in the fifth and deciding game of semi final action. The Bombers added pitcher Stephen Birt that year and with the bases loaded and two out Birt was called upon to put out a potential Northside rally in the top of the sixth inning. Birt threw two high outside fastballs and was ahead on the count 0-2. Birt then threw another fastball that got too much of the plate and Dustin Clinton hit it long and far over the left field fence ending the series.

The Northside Brewers scored early and often as they swamped the Peakes Bombers 12-2 in Kings County Baseball League finals on Sunday. The game was called after five innings due to the mercy rule.
It was a boisterous crowd at the Peakes diamond on Sunday hoping for a two game series lead. It didn’t take too long for the Brewers to silence the fans and dimm any hopes of a Bomber victory. Northside scored three in the first and second innings and five in the fourth to lead 11-0 before Bomber Josh Coffin homered in the bottom of the fourth. Northside scored one more in the fifth to regain their 10 run lead and winning pitcher Jason MacLean shut down the Bombers in the bottom of the fifth to seal the deal. Jamie Arsenault and Taylor Larkin were both 3/4 in the game. Arsenault also homered and had three RBIs.

The Northside Brewers have earned their way to the finals of the Kings County Baseball League. Northside completed a semi-final comeback when they defeated the regular season champ, Stratford Pharmacy Athletics, 9-2 in the fifth and deciding game. They will now meet the Peakes Bombers in the final.
The Athletics grabbed a 2-1 series lead over the Brewers a week ago Sunday. A local web page had the so-called experts predicting what was going to happen with a Stratford/Peakes final. Basically about 90 per cent of the readers had this series already over. However somebody forgot to tell that to the Northside Brewers.

The Peakes Bombers are returning to the Kings County Baseball League finals and for the first time in eleven years the Morell Chevies are not.
The Bombers defeated the Morell Chevies 5-3 to sweep their best of five semi-finals in three straight games. It was a solid team effort from the Bombers getting key hits from throughout the line-up. They scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to erase a 3-1 Chevie lead. Josh Coffin was the winning pitcher. Neal Morrison continues to have a good series as he started the sixth inning rally with a lead-off single. Matt MacDonald also had a big RBI in the rally.
The Bombers will now wait for the winner of the Stratford-Northside series which has been a dandy.
Stratford Pharmacy Athletics earned a 2-1 series lead over Northside with a dramatic 6-5 win in Stratford.

The first round of the Kings County Baseball League is over and although there were some close contests all four series were three game sweeps.

Stratford Pharmacy Athletics defeated a stubborn Cornwall Mud Hens 6-3 to advance in their series. The Mud Hens were competitive in two of the three games. Ron Thistle and the Mud Hens were a little over matched throughout the season but the strong showing against the first place Pharmacy was a good finish to their season.

Peakes Bombers swept the Sherwood Dodgers beating them 7-2 for the sweep. The Dodgers started the season slow, then won seven of eleven before fading off down the stretch. Dodgers center fielder, Will Jadis should be a star in this league for many years. The Bombers Rob Phelan, 4/4 with two RBI’s and Joe Gardiner 3/3 with three RBI's were the Bombers big hitters in the clincher.

The Kings County Baseball league held its annual awards banquet on Tuesday evening at Phinley’s in Stratford and Northside Brewers finest was honor with League MVP.

Jason MacLean edged out sophomore catcher Marshall Ellis of Stratford Pharmacy to win Northside’s first ever league MVP.

MacLean has been the Brewers ace and batting leader for almost every year since he join the team.

MacLean also won the Harry Hughes Memorial as top pitcher. In another close race, MacLean edged out Pharmacy rookie Josh Kirkpatrick. MacLean also won for most home runs.

Northside’s Taylor Larkin made it the major award hat trick for the Brewers, winning rookie of the year honors. Josh Kirkpatrick was again a close second.

The final major trophy, the Lionel King memorial for hard work and dedication, was won by Sherwood Dodger shortstop Mike Roberts. It was again close in the voting with Pharmacy shortstop Shawn MacDougall a close second.

The Stratford Pharmacy Athletics are the new Kings County Baseball League regular season champions.
Stratford defeated the defending regular season champs, Morell Chevies 3-2 on Sunday. Morell entered the game needing a win to have any chance at their fifth straight regular season crown.
Stratford got off to a fast start on Sunday. Jacob and Allister Smith, along with Shawn MacDougall, got on base and were all score on RBI’s by Randy Taylor, Marshall Ellis, and Brad Larter. In the bottom of the second, Quen Johnston singled in Desi and Grant Doyle to close the gap to 3-2. The Pharmacy hung on till the bottom of the seventh when Morell loaded the bases with one out. However, Josh Kirtpatrick struck out Jarrod Laybolt and got Desi Doyle to lined out to right field to end an excellent and entertaining game. Pharmacy catcher Marshall Ellis hit his fourth triple of the year to tie him with Brewer’s shortstop Garrett VanDiepen.

The Stratford Athletics Pharmacy has the say on how the Kings County Baseball League will finish up.

Stratford improved their overall record to 18-4 and are getting closer to their first KCBL championship since 1998. The Pharmacy won two huge games over the past week.

Thursday evening in Morell, Stratford defeated the Northside Brewers 11-4. Stratford’s first five batters all reached base and scored to put the game away early.

On Sunday the Pharmacy and the Peakes Bombers engaged in yet another heated ball game. These two clubs are rivals to say the least and easily have the two teams with the most animosity towards each other. Besides the base stealing up by nine runs, the bean balls or bench clearing blowups, these two teams are entertaining fans with some old fashioned baseball.

The Peakes Bombers are at the top of the Kings County Baseball League.

Its been a team effort all year and their secret to winning may be just sticking together. Nobody is among the leaders’ stats wise, but this is a team that usually shows up with the same players each year and they all give what is asked of them.

The Bombers won two more games over the week. Rob Phelan won his seventh decision on Wednesday defeating the Morell Chevies on a three hit 3-0 shutout win.

They followed it up on Sunday bombing the Sherwood Dodgers 10-0. Josh Coffin earned the team’s second straight shutout win by tossing a one hitter.

Lead off batter Colin Myers, once again leads the team in most offensive categories. Myers tops the team charts at bats, runs, hits, doubles, walks and stolen bases and batting average.