Off to 2-0 start
Nova Scotia defeats host squad for second win on opening day of Canada Games
The Canada Games softball team, bolstered by a number of South Colchester players, got off to a fine start in Winnipeg, with a pair of victories.
Noah Hawes was clutch for Nova Scotia late Saturday in leading the men’s softball team to a 7-2 victory over host Manitoba at the Canada Games in Winnipeg.
He tripled to lead off the bottom of the fifth and scored the winning run on Coby Crowell’s single to left field. Hawes provided some insurance with a tworun homer in the seventh.
“We were nervous at the start, but we dug deep and we wanted to win really bad,” said Hawes, a third baseman from Spry Bay who finished the day 2-for-4.
In the top of the fifth, Alex Anthony came on in relief of starter Randall Bernard. Anthony, the Shubenacadie native who earned the win in a 6-2 Game 1 victory against a Prince Edward Island, got Anthony Keeper Jr., who had four home runs in two games on Saturday, to ground out with runners on the corners in a 2-2 contest.
“It’s awesome. He’s a big part of our team,” Hawes said. “He’s our ace pitcher and I knew he was going to do it.”
Nova Scotia opened the scoring in the second when Liam Giffen led off the inning with a walk and Anthony followed with a single.
Giffen was standing 60 feet from the plate when Brenden Walker hit a shallow fly to right field with no outs. It was then head coach Jeff Fraser decided to pressure the defence to make a perfect play.
“I heard Jeff (say), ‘If the second baseman catches that, you’re going’, so pretty easy decision for me, just put my head down and give ‘er,” Giffen explained.
He beat the throw on a close play at the plate. Anthony scored later in the inning as a throw to first on Hawes’s ground ball was off target.
The lead was short-lived as the host squad tied it in the top of the third on a two-run homer by Keeper.
Hawes said the team remained upbeat despite relinquishing the lead.
“Every inning is a new inning,” he said. “We never gave up and were always positive; just keep going, head down and be focused all the time.”
Giffen, a left-fielder from West St. Andrews, said the four-run sixth inning was key to add insurance runs after Anthony got a double play to get out of the top of the sixth.
“We needed that,” he said. “You always try to get those runs to put it away. If you’re up by one and they don’t get any, the next inning is huge. You really try and push for those extra runs.”
Anthony, who closed out the game with a strikeout, picked up his second win of the day. He allowed one hit in two and a third innings while striking out two. Bernard, a Pictou Landing resident, allowed two runs on four hits and a walk while striking out six.
Henry Muchikekwanape took the loss, allowing three runs on three hits in four and two-thirds innings. Megwan Muswaggon gave up four runs on three hits while getting two outs in relief.
Crowell was 2-for-3 with an RBI while Bernard had a single and drove in two runs in the sixth on a 3-0 count.
In games Sunday, Nova Scotia played Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador. Results were unavailable.