Men’s Baseball Win OCAA Gold for Third Consecutive Crown

Aurora, ON – The St. Clair College Men's Baseball team put an exclamation mark on their 2023 season winning their third consecutive Provincial Gold Medal Saturday at the OCAA Championship being hosted by Seneca College at Stewart Burnett Park in Aurora, ON.  After rain pushed their Friday game against Durham College (Oshawa) until Saturday morning the Saints upended the tournament's second seed with a 7-2 result and used a 12-2 mercy shortened victory over Humber College (Etobicoke) to take home the banner.

In the Durham win the Saints scored a run in the first inning but dropped three more in the second to take control early.  Another single in the third and a pair in the fifth put the game out of reach.  Durham managed two runs in seventh but four errors by the Lords were their undoing in the loss. St. Clair starting pitcher Sam McKinlay (Tilbury, ON) was named Player of the Game after throwing six innings and gave up only an earned run on six hits and four walks but struck out six batters.  Hunter Appleyard (LaSalle, ON/St. Thomas of Villanova) provided the offensive punch for the Saints with a triple and a single that drove in four runs.

In the final win over Humber, St. Clair scored early and often to give their rival no hope.  A single run in the first came before a 6-run explosion in the second.  Four more runs in the third had the Saints ahead 11-0 as Humber could only respond with a single run in the fourth and fifth.  St. Clair manufactured a single run in the bottom of the fifth to secure the mercy.  Josh Anderson (Ajax, ON) had two hits with one RBI as Appleyard slashed another triple as part of his two hits and three RBI.  Catcher Henry Real (Panama City, Panama) was named the Player of the Game for the Saints after a triple and a single that drove in three runs but also scored three times.

McKinlay joined Mitch McCosh (Belle River, ON/Belle River) as Championship All-Star team selections.  Appleyard won his second consecutive Championship MVP Award leading the Saints with a .545 average and 10 RBI.

The Gold Medal for St. Clair marks the eighth title in just ten years of OCAA Baseball.