15U Cardinals show no mercy winning

  St. Thomas needs only five innings per team on way to provincial gold

  September 1, 2025

By Rob J. Ross

ST. THOMAS - The St. Thomas Cardinals showed no mercy on their way to an Ontario Baseball Association (OBA) 15U B championship.

The Cardinals never needed more than five innings to defeat any of their five opponents, outscoring them, 70-15, in the process.

Drew Bate and Ben McCoubrey both went three-for-three in the final, with Bate driving in four runs and McCoubrey a RBI triple, as the Cardinal defeated Simcoe, 13-3, in five innings, Sunday at Emslie Field.

Colton Roose also had four RBIs, from a home run and double.

"We know we can hit better than any other team that we've seen," Cardinals head coach Jamie Johnston said. "I was a little surprised how well we hit consistently, because these are teams we hadn't seen and we know the further along you go, the teams are better. We saw their better pitchers too."

St Thomas opened the 12-team three day tournament, taking care of Woodstock in five innings, 16-6. The Cardinals pounded on Kawartha, 12-2 and Simcoe, 13-1.

In the semifinals, the Cardinals wasted no time jumping on Ancaster, scoring 11 runs in the first inning, cruising to a 16-3 decision.

"I never had to use a relief pitcher and three of my top arms hadn't thrown at all," Johnston said, referring to McCoubrey, Aiden Annett and Linkin Kellington.

Matthew East pitched a complete five inning game in the final.

This season, St. Thomas won all six tournaments entered, including the London and District playoffs a weekend earlier. The most challenging weekend was at LaSalle, where they had a loss and tie and needed help advancing to Sunday action.

"It's a testament to how well they've been coached growing up and what great kids they are and what great ball players they are," said Johnston. "It's (OBA) a tough tournament to win. So much has to go right and it did for us this weekend."

It is the first provincial title for the core of the team since winning in Rookie Ball. East was with the Cardinals U16 team a year ago when they were champions.

"It's been a long time coming. We've been to every Sunday in OBAs, but since 8U we hadn't been able to bring it home. This is really special," Johnston said. "It'll take awhile to sit in, they'll never play on a team like this."

The 13U Cardinals brought home silver.

The 15U select Cardinals went 2-2 at Dorchester.
 

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