Sep 04, 2025 | Rob Pearce | 102 views
9U (2016) Tecumseh Rangers Win OBA “A” Title
Starting on August 22nd , our 9U Tecumseh Rangers started the gauntlet schedule of this double elimination tournament, to try and be declared the best 9U team in Ontario for the “A” Division.
August 22nd
Tecumseh started off their quest with a 3pm game on the Friday, against the Mahoney Bears.The Rangers came out with hot bats, and stellar defence that the Bears just couldn’t keep up with. Your Rangers won with a final score of 8-1. Next challenge would be a 6pm game against one of the favoured teams to go all the way, the North London Nationals. The players battled hard, and gave maximum effort on both sides, but London inched their way to a walkoff win of 9-8.
August 23rd
Entering play Saturday, Coach Viale and his staff reminded these boys that they had won two tournaments this year, and they would never count themselves out of anything. With his “Viale Venom” running through their veins, these players went up against the Vaughn Vikings with an 11:45am start time, and never took their foot off the gas, and sent a strong message they were here to win, by posting a victory 20-1. Next on the schedule was the Guelph Royals at 5:45pm.Still on a high from their last game, Guelph didn’t have a chance with the Rangers taking the lead early and never looking back, eventually closing out the game with a score of 17-4.
August 24th
Reaching the final day of any tournament is an accomplishment, but today was special, this was the OBA Provincial Tournament, and at the start of the day at 9am only five teams remained, and our neighbours, the Lakeshore Whitecaps were the only team still undefeated. For their first game, Tecumseh would have to play the Mahoney Bears again. They win, they draw for a potential bye to the finals, they lose, they go home. Again, the coaches remined them that they could do this, and it would take the whole team to do their part. With Mahoney parents loudly supporting their team, they didn’t let it get to them, and it helped fuel them to a 9-4 win, sending Mahoney home. Then there would be three teams left, as the London West Tincaps won their morning game. The two teams would now draw for the bye. With fate carrying the team, they drew the bye over the Tincaps who would play Lakeshore. The Tincaps beat Lakeshore setting up a semi final matchup between the Rangers and their rival Lakeshore Whitecaps. In a chaotic game, the Rangers would pull out the 8-6 victory in extra innings to set up a Championship of the ages, the two best teams of the weekend facing off to see who would win the rights to call themselves the best. The London West Tincaps came out swinging and took an early lead of 4-0. Struggling through a few innings, the Rangers could not figure out how to get through London Wests defense. Then finally, with only an inning left, these boys did it, they started hitting, running, and scoring to take the lead, and from there they never looked back. When it was all said and done, the 9U Tecumseh Rangers were crowned the 9U “A” Provincial Champions by winning the game 8-4. TMBA is extremely proud of the effort and dedication that this coaching staff put into this season, not only developing these 9 years olds into great ball players, but also into really good kids this community can be proud of, and happy to celebrate with.
Please join us in congratulating:
Head Coach Andrew Viale
Assistant Coaches: Andrew Crow, Chris Dunn, Miguel Gonzalez, Sergio Licata, and Jerrod Smith
The Players: Kingston Crow, Brayden DeBruyn, James Dunn. Owen Eagen, Connor Ferris, Nathan Gonzalez, Isaac Groulx, Caden Licata, Samuel Mazzetti, Blake Siebert, Sawyer Smith, and Zack Viale