Brewer’s Chater earns slew of North Dufferin league awards

Written By JAKE COURTEPATTE

The high-powered hitting of the Bolton Brewers did not go unnoticed at this year's league award announcements.

The North Dufferin Baseball League announced the awards and nominations list for the 2018 season on Sunday, in preparation for their annual general meeting coming next month.

Longtime Brewer Brett Chater headlined the list of nominees and winners, seeing his name come up four times.

With three of the four top batting averages league-wide coming off the bats of the Brewers, Chater led them all by a longshot with his incredible .517. He also earned the honours of the highest on-base percentage, slightly above teammate Mike Wallace with a .689 percentage.

His runs scored were no were close to matched around the fourteen-team senior AA league, finishing with 14 more than both Wallace and fellow teammate Chris Fafalios at 45 in just 24 games played.

Naturally, such astonishing numbers led to a Most Valuable Player nomination, along with Brad Grieveson of the Ivy Leafs and Brandon Norrie of the New Lowell Knights. Norrie's twelve doubles led the league, while Grieveson was a master on the mound in pitching a perfect 8 – 0 season.

Chater and the rest of the Brew Crew hoped for back-to-back Strother Cup championships when they met with the Leafs in the final best-of-seven series in September, though they fell to the Leafs in six games.

The Bolton squad has been one of the most dominant in the storied ninety-year old league over the past decade, boasting five straight championships between the 2009 and 2013 seasons.

A pair of other Bolton connections also appeared on the awards list: Both Ron DiPalma and Michael Gemmiti were in the nominations for the senior division's Most Sportsmanlike Player, after their season with the Brewers' crosstown rivals, the Bolton Dodgers.

The bevy of awards will be handed out to the 2018 class at the first meeting of the 2019 season on March 10 at the Lisle Legion.

Fellow Brewer Carter Burnside will also be honoured as the 2018 East division All-Star Game Most Valuable Player.