Baseball Splits on Opening Day at OCAA’s

Oshawa, ON – The St. Clair College Men's Baseball team lost their opening game 6-2 to host Durham College in Oshawa Friday afternoon at the OCAA Provincial Championship but rebounded for a 10-0 mercy win over Seneca College (North York) later that evening to keep their hope alive for a Gold Medal. 

In the opening loss to Durham the Saints fell behind 5-1 after 4 innings and then 6-1 heading to the 7^th where they could only muster a single run in the last.  Brendan Renaud (Amherstburg, ON/St. Thomas of Villanova) was named the St. Clair Player of the Game after two hits including a triple.  Luis Barrios (Cali, Colombia) was tagged with the loss after giving up 5 earned runs on 8 hits and two walks while striking out 3 batters. 

In their next game the Saints scored 4 runs in the second and third innings before closing out the game in the sixth with a pair of runs.  St. Clair pitcher Emilio Valdes (Miami, FL) earned Player of the Game honours after throwing 5 strong innings only surrendering 2 hits while striking out 6 batters but did walk 5.  Michael Hamlin (Harrow, ON/Essex District) came on in relief to help preserve the shutout. 

Carter Reh (Harrow, ON/Kingsville District) had a single and a triple while driving in 3 runs to lead the Saints offensively.  Francisco Rivera (Hermosillo, Mexico), Ryley Vernon (LaSalle, ON/St. Thomas of Villanova) and Renaud each also had 2 hits in the lopsided win.

St. Clair will take on Durham College again in the gold medal round qualifier at 10:00am Saturday.