Sooners ride big inning to league finals
Sydney to play powerhouse Dartmouth after overcoming Halifax in semifinal
When Sydney Sooners right fielder Cory Christie tracked and then hauled down a long fly ball near the warning track in the second inning, it appeared that runs would be hard to come by.
And, runs were indeed scarce for the first half of the fifth-and-deciding semifinal game between the Sooners and the Halifax Pelham Canadians that was played Saturday evening at the Susan McEachern Memorial Field in Sydney.
But what was a tight defensive struggle between two evenly matched teams was essentially over in a single inning as the Sooners rallied to push six runs across the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a commanding 9-2 lead. Halifax would add a couple of late runs, but the deficit was too great to overcome, and the defending champion Sooners hung on for a 9-4 win and a ticket to the 2018 Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League championship series.
Even though the Sooners came out on top, their mainland rivals must feel they could just as easily have captured the closely contested five-game series. With home field advantage due to its only slightly better record, the Sooners (15-17) opened the series on the road in Halifax (14-17) the previous weekend when Sydney took the opener by a 6-2 score in 10 innings. The Canadians took Game 2 by a score of 5-1 and the series shifted to Sydney.
On Friday evening, the hometown Sooners shut out the Canadians 3-0 and returned to the ballpark on Saturday afternoon with hopes of wrapping up the series. However, it was Halifax’s turn to silence the opposition bats and the Canadians evened the series with a 3-0 win.
Following a short break, the two teams headed into the winner-take-all Game 5 and with a crowd of about 200 fans looking on the Sooners rode their one big inning to what on paper was an easier win than it appeared.
Next up for Cape Breton’s boys of summer is the archrival Dartmouth Moosehead Dry, regular season champs who won 25 straight games before suffering their first defeat. The Dry would go on to finish the season with a remarkable 31-1 record.
This season’s Dartmouth’s lineup could even be called fearsome as it features the league’s top four hitters, including batting champ Dan Comeau who hit .433. Chris Thibideau, Jake Sanford and Matt Doudelet also all attained a plus-.400 average. Thibideau and teammate Anthony McKinley were the NSSBL’s top home run hitters with eight and seven respectively. And, there’s more — further down the leaders’ list is perennial all-star Chris Head, who hails from River Ryan.
Dartmouth also posted some lofty numbers on the mound this season. Jeff Reaves and Jason Mosher were both 9-0, with the latter also leading the league with an earnedrun average of just 1.19.
But there is a reason why the Sooners are the defending league champions. Despite losing a couple of veteran players prior to the season, the Sydney-based squad has its own share of competitive ballplayers.
Jordan Shepherd beat the hide off the ball as he finished fifth in batting (.397), second in hits (48), third in RBIs (29), first in doubles (10), fourth in home runs (4) and second in stolen bases (20). Mike Tobin and Kenny Long were also among the league’s top hitters, while the latter also contributed on the mound. Justin Brewer proved to be the workhorse of the staff as he pitched 70 innings while compiling a 5-3 record.
At the team level, both the Dry and the Sooners have each won three of the last six league pennants.
The schedule for the sevengame NSSBL championship series has yet to be released.