Champions in fight for Can-Am playoff berth
Ottawa, led by offensive sparkplug Boucher, must fend off Trois-Rivières
In his first five seasons in the Can-Am Baseball League Sebastien Boucher was a winner.
Boucher, the Ottawa Champions offensive catalyst, won five straight Can-Am League titles with the Quebec City Capitals from 2009 through 2013. And then he was part of a Capitals club that missed the playoffs altogether last season.
Boucher wants no part of a second straight season ending with nothing to play for, and for him that means the Champions have to fend off the Trois-Rivières Aigles and keep the fourth and final playoff spot in the final five weeks of regular season play.
“We knew half way through last season there was no way we were making the playoffs and it was tough to deal with, especially because we felt we might have had the best offensive team we’d had in Quebec in the six seasons,” Boucher says. “You never want a season to end like that ... it’s tough to keep playing.
“But here, where we are right now, we still have a lot to play for. It keeps the guys pushing hard and keeps them working. It’s going to be that way the rest of the way.”
The four-team playoff format in the Can-Am League is a lot like the second wild card spot in the big leagues. It keeps just about every team in the league in contention down the stretch. For the expansion Champions, it means that, while they have generally conceded the top three spots in the league to Rockland, Quebec City and New Jersey, fourth is very much in play and will likely be right down to the final pitch of the regular season, on Labour Day Monday afternoon at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Stadium.
There’s not a lot to choose between the Champions and Aigles with just a half-game between them after going more than 60 games deep into the season. A three-game homestand with the Aigles ends Friday night followed by three more games next weekend in Trois-Rivières.
Then, there are three more games between the two teams to close out the season at home September 5-7. The Champions did take three of four from Les Aigles on the road in late July. And they took fourth place after winning the opener of this set Wednesday evening 3-2, thanks to a walk-off single by Boucher in the 10th inning. Thursday night Boucher went two for three at the plate including a two-run home run and an RBI single as the Champions dropped the Aigles 3-1.
The Champions hope they have taken a leap forward by acquiring first baseman Nick Giarraputo.
With an anemic team batting average of just .255, Ottawa hopes putting Giarraputo in the middle of the order will give the pitching staff much deserved run support. His signing led to the release of Jon Talley.
The newest Champion originally signed with the New York Mets as a 12th round pick in 2006 and hit a plateau in A ball in 2009. Since then, he’s been with Sussex and New Jersey in the Can-Am League and last season was with Kansas City in the American Association.
The Champions are hoping for the 2011 and 2012 Giarraputo, who hit better than .300 both seasons with 22 home runs in 2012. Injuries curtailed him much of the last two seasons but the Champions feel they did their homework and Jiarraputo is good to go.
“We would have to really go on some kind of run to challenge the top three,” says Champions general manager Ben Hodge. “Rockland, Quebec City and New Jersey are all really strong clubs. “But we always felt like Trois-Rivières and Sussex County were within our reach. And now Sussex County has kind of fallen off, so it’s us and Trois-Rivières.”
The Champions seemed as if they had the season really turned around just a week ago when they won five of seven to get back into the race.
Then Wichita arrived and beat them three of four and now they have to get it cranked up again with only three scheduled days off to go.
If they can finish fourth, the reward is a best-of-five matchup with the pennant winners that would run in the second week of September.