Mayor Mrakas provides pep talk for National Championship-bound U15 Aurora Diggers

July 30, 2026 · 0 Comments

Mayor Tom Mrakas delivered a pep talk to the U15 Aurora Diggers fast pitch squad at Town Park’s pristine ball diamond on Thursday night.

In addition to Mayor Mrakas’s timely words of encouragement to the Diggers prior to their date with destiny at the Canadian Championships next week, Town of Aurora Specialist in Sport and Community Development Hailey Jones presented each player with a congratulatory certificate to commemorate the Diggers’ achievements in Ontario’s Tier 1 division.

Jones—an NCAA basketball player who concluded her collegiate career with the McMaster Marauders—praised the team’s #1 seeding and encouraged all the student-athletes to strive for a postsecondary sports scholarship.

One of those student-athletes looking to follow Jones’s footsteps into an NCAA sports program is Diggers’ ace pitcher and slugger Scoty Lewis.

In the team’s third base dugout prior to practice, the hard-hitting hurler disclosed her athletic and academic goals: “I really want to play ball anywhere in the States–as long as it’s at a high level of play. I’m interested in studying Kinesiology.”

Lewis, who is entering Grade 10 at Sir William Mulock Secondary School in September, has been a stellar two-way performer for the Diggers. She’s struck out a jaw-dropping 327 batters during the 2026 season. Lewis attributed her gaudy strikeout numbers, as well as her stingy 1.09 ERA and microscopic 0.78 WHIP, to the instruction she receives from her pitching coach Todd Martin.

“I have more command this season because he finds something in my delivery and fixes it. I’m a quick learner. He’s local so if I have a problem, we can work on it right away. I’ve never had any other pitching coach. He was with the Canadian National Team and coached [Cardinal Carter grad, Syracuse University star, and National Olympic Team co-captain] Jenna Caira.”

The resident of Newmarket, who has also contributed to the team’s success with her bat by hitting for a high average (.509) and belting big game home runs, explained why the U15 Diggers have been seeded as the top Tier 1 team in Ontario: “Our team has a great connection with everyone. Everyone’s truthful—it leads to how we get along and our good play on the field. Our communication both off the field and on the field is on point. When we’re playing defense and the ball is hit, everyone is screaming where the ball is, where the baserunners are, and where we need to throw the ball.”

Not only is Lewis pleased with how the Diggers have played as a team this Summer, but she believes her team’s unity will be an asset at the U15 National Fast Pitch Championship tournament: “We want to win. We want to try our best. We’ll win or lose as a team. We have to keep strong as a team and dig in against the strong competition we’ll be facing. We’ll need to be there for one another and we all need to be an uplifting presence to pick up our teammates.”

The Aurora Diggers’ quest for a national title commences on July 28 when they take on PEI in Fredericton, NB.

By Jim Stewart
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter