Myer 2-2 at Ontario finals

Controversial play in extra innings eliminates Marauders from OFSAA baseball championships

A.N. Myer didn’t receive a medal at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations but the Marauders were involved in more than enough drama to earn an Oscar nominee.

Case in point, their final game in Windsor against host St. Anne.

With two men on base, Myer was down a run and down to its final out in the bottom of the seventh against the two-time defending provincial champions.

Fittingly, Ryan Shannon, already the Marauders man of the hour after he was pressed into action to pitch following an injury to scheduled starter Dennis Lescombe, drove in the tying run with a clutch hit sending the Marauders into extra innings for the second game in a row.

All the makings of a storybook ending for the three-time Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association champions from Niagara Falls, except St. Anne was taking cues from a different script.

In that one, the winning run would be decided in a controversial play at the plate in the second inning.

While Myer Grade 9 student Dan Goulet made a diving catch in right and recovered to fire a bullet to catcher Owen Diodati, the runner tagging up from third was called safe in a cloud of dust as the Marauders dropped a disappointing 5-4 decision.

Lucas Lafortune and Nathan Caughell both pitched well in relief for Myer.

It was the Marauders’ second extra-inning loss in as many games. Goulet, falling victim to a tightened strike zone, allowed three runs in the eighth in a 4-1 loss to Riverside, the champions from the Windsor region.

Marauders ace Chris Caughell allowed only two hits, both of them bloopers, in his six-inning start.

Myer lost more than the game as Lescombe, the team’s leadoff hitter and on that day the starting shortstop, was injured on a diving putout in the fifth inning.

Second baseman Shawn Adamo had two hits, scored two runs and was a standout on defence and Jake Julian drove in two runs as the Marauders, seeded second in the West Region and third overall, opened the double-elimination tournament with a 4-0 victory over St. Peter from Barrie.

Myer then tripled Our Lady of Mount Carmel from Mississagua 3-1 behind the combined pitching of Shannon, who started and got the win, and Chris Caughell, who closed out the game and picked up the save.

Julian and Lescombe paced the Marauders at plate with two hits apiece, and the infield of Willy Jackman, Calum Theal, Lescombe and Julian turned spectacular double plays in the fifth and sixth innings.