#1 HAWKS ADVANCE DIRECTLY TO GOLD MEDAL ROUND WITH TWO WINS ON FRIDAY

#1 HAWKS ADVANCE DIRECTLY TO GOLD MEDAL ROUND WITH TWO WINS ON FRIDAY

OSHAWA, ON: The Humber Hawks men's baseball team have advanced directly to the Gold Medal round for the first time in their history by way of a 6-2 opening day win over Fanshawe, and then a 7-0 evening win in the winners bracket over the defending champion St. Clair Saints.

Humber will now await the winner of the Bronze Medal Game on Saturday morning at 10:00 am between the Fanshawe Falcons and St. Clair Saints. The loser will be awarded bronze, while the winners will advance to the finals against Humber. Humber would need a single win to claim gold, while their opponent would need back-to-back wins.

The gold medal game is scheduled for 1:00 pm at Kinsmen Stadium in Oshawa.

GAME 1
Humber Hawks 6 vs Fanshawe Falcons 2

It was OCAA All-Star pitcher versus OCAA All-Star pitcher to open up the 2018 OCAA  men's baseball championships, as Fanshawe's Kale Bilger dueled Humber's Rory Pollard. Bilger was eventually tagged with the loss while Pollard did not get the decision for the Hawks. The win went to crafty veteran Steven Hough, who pitched three scoreless innings to get the victory.

Fanshawe struck early, taking a 2-0 lead after their first at-bat. The Hawks did respond with one of their own, but the turning point may have come in the top of the second, as a Falcon player was thrown out at the plate to end the inning. A second Hawks sacrifice fly knotted the game at two.

Humber pushed across two in both the fifth and sixth innings, with Hawks first baseman Brendan Lyons doing the damage. Lyons would eventually end the game with four runs batted in.

The Falcons loaded the bases in the seventh and had the tying run at the plate after three Hough walks, but a key strikeout ended the game.

Jared Gonsalves and Liam Sutherland each had two safeties on the night. Tyler Wood of Fanshawe, led both teams with four hits.

Liam Sutherland was selected as the Humber Player of the Game

GAME 2
Humber Hawks 7 vs St. Clair Saints 0

To look at the final score, one would think this was a blowout, but that would be far from the truth. Humber held a thin 1-0 lead to the bottom of the seventh in a well-pitched game between star hurlers Tyler Pappin of St. Clair and Brendan Lyons of Humber. The bottom of the six is where things unraveled for the Saints, as a number of errors and free passes resulted in the six runs.

Lyons was spectacular, going the distance for the shutout on a three-hitter with nine punch-outs. For his efforts, he was chosen as the Humber Player of the Game.

League batting champion Andrew Thomson had two knocks for Humber, while no St. Clair batter got more than one.

 

OFFICIAL TOURNAMENT WEBSITE