For the first time since the establishment of the Leaside Leafs in 1968, the team will be representing Ontario in the National Championships.
The Leafs are a AAA Senior team that competes in the Greater Toronto Baseball League. In early August, the team captured the 2025 Ontario Men’s AAA National Qualifying Tournament title.
“(I am) ecstatic about the victory because of the difficulty in winning a National Qualifier tournament,” said manager Matthew Nailer. “There are some really good squads in the province, which we beat. I’m proud of the players and how they performed. When you know of the time and effort the players put in to achieve this goal (throughout the years) and they accomplish it, it brings a smile.
“For some of the more tenured players on the squad – Jorge Frugoni (2007), Andrew Morales (2008), Chris Goodale (2011), Jeff Gruchy (2006) and assistant coach Henry Yap (2000) – it’s especially sweet because they’ve been knocking on the Nationals door before.”
With solid defence and powerful batting, the team dominated the tournament. But, as Nailer pointed out, “the key to the (tournament) was the pitching. Our starting pitchers threw five complete games, and we only needed four innings of relief work in the entire event.”
With all but five players returning from the 2024 roster, this was a cohesive and determined squad that pulled out all the stops in their quest for the championship.
(Note: the National Championships took place in Regina from August 21st to the 24th after we went to press. See all results at seniormen.baseball.ca).
