St. Clair Saints capture fifth consecutive OCAA title
At one time, the drive for five looked like an impossible dream for the St. Clair College Saints baseball team.
After four-straight titles, heavy graduation forced the Saints to incorporate 14 new faces into this year’s lineup.
On Saturday, the Saints showed that youth was not an issue.
Backed by the shutout pitching of freshman right-hander Seth Chauvin, St. Clair claimed its fifthstraight title with a 1-0 win over the Humber Hawks in the gold-medal game at Lacasse Park.
“It’s one of the most gratifying championships I’ve been involved with and I’ve been in a few,” Saints manager Dave Cooper said.
“They were hard workers and that’s what made it work.”
Cooper didn’t always feel that way after trying to get the pieces to fit together in less than two months.
“I never saw a team that started out with so many flaws and in two months, with a short season, just to see how much they improved and fell into the game plan,” Cooper said.
The Saints went to 18-year-old Chauvin for the final.
The L’Essor high school product threw a complete-game shutout and allowed just three hits.
“It’s one of the top five games I’ve pitched in my life,” Chauvin said. “I just wanted to throw strikes. I’m a contact pitcher and it was just pitch to bat and let our defence make plays.”
The game’s only run came in the bottom of the fourth inning. Austin Oulds came home on a dropped third strike by the catcher that needed a throw to first base to complete the out. Oulds timed his break perfectly to evade the tag on the return throw to the plate.
“(Humber pitcher Ryan) Pollard throws a forkball,” Cooper said.
“We talked about (the possibility) right before it happened.”
The top-seeded club in the fourteam tournament, the Saints went unbeaten in three games. St. Clair opened with a 6-5 win over Fanshawe and went right to the final with a 10-0 win over Humber.
St. Clair’s Michael McKay was named most valuable player and to the all-star team along with teammates Carson Burke and Kevin Dion.
SILVER IN SOFTBALL
For the second-straight year, the St. Clair Saints settled for the silver medal at the OCAA championships, which was held in Brampton.
The Saints could solve everyone in the field other than the Durham Lords, which won its third-straight title.
St. Clair opened the tournament with a 10-0 win over Mohawk, but fell 11-0 to Durham in the doubleknockout format.
St. Clair beat Mohawk 9-4 to get another shot at Durham. The Saints won 4-2 to leave both teams with a loss and set up a winner-take-all final, but fell 9-0 in the game.
St. Clair’s Megan Lumley and Jordan Taylor were both named to the tournament all-star team.
SAINTS SOCCER SPLITS
St. Clair’s women’s team is headed to the OCAA soccer championship after a dominating performance in the club’s qualifying playoff game on Sunday.
Jaclyn French scored twice as the Saints rolled to a 6-1 win at home over St. Lawrence.
Cassie Nicholas, Casandra RoseMedeiros, Melanie Jubenville and Andie Albert added single goals for the Saints, who will head to Sudbury for the conference championship.
The result wasn’t as positive for the men’s team, which fell 3-1 at home to Durham in a game that sent the winner to the OCAA championship.
Stefan Zastavnikovic had the lone goal for the Saints in the 24th minute, which had St. Clair up 1-0 early.