SAINTS REPEAT

The St. Clair Saints have already concluded their OCAA regular season, and between now and the OCAA championship, can make room in their trophy case for another plaque, albeit not the ultimate prize they are after.

St. Clair has won its second straight OCAA regular season title with an impressive 19-1 record. Durham was the only team to snatch victory from the Saints, a 3-2 triumph back on Sept. 20.

Since then, St. Clair has won seven straight. The Saints will enjoy some extended time off knowing they will be the top seed at Durham for the OCAA championship Oct. 17-18.

TWO THROUGH FOUR

While the Saints play the waiting game, three other teams will jockey for position to determine the remaining three seeds. With the fourth place team opening the OCAA tournament against St. Clair, it puts a premium on the second and third place positions.

At 11-5, second-place Humber has a one-game lead over Fanshawe at 10-6. Both teams have four games remaining, with a rescheduled doubleheader between these teams set for Oct. 14.

Trailing in the No. 4 spot is Durham, with a record of 9-8. The Lords play a single game against Humber on Thursday, followed by a rescheduled doubleheader against Fanshawe on Saturday.

Conceivably, all three teams could end the season with 12-8 records. All three teams would be 4-4 in head-to-head competition against each other, meaning run differential would be used to sort out the tie. It makes for some interesting drama over the next seven days.

BROKEN RECORDS

With the OCAA men's baseball league almost two seasons old, some new single-season records have been established, but not yet etched in stone.

Andrew Murrell (Pickering, Ont.) of George Brown set a new single season standard with 29 hits, however, his stay in the record book may be short lived. Fanshawe's Paul Lytwynec (London, Ont.) and Sean Refflinghaus (London, Ont.) have 25 hits each with four games remaining. George Brown has already concluded its season.

Murrell is also in the clubhouse with a OCAA-record .492 batting average. Again, Lytwynec (.463) and Refflinghaus (.458) can top this feat depending on how both fare over their final four games.

Fanshawe's Nate Grindstaff (London, Ont.) holds the new single season record of 25 runs scored, but has teammate Lytwynec in the rear view mirror with 23.

Humber's Brian MacDonald (Markham, Ont.) has 25 RBI to tie the OCAA record, and has a healthy lead on Durham's Thomas Fearon (Ajax, Ont.) and his 20 RBI.

In the pitching categories, Durham's Ilija Bozinovski (Ajax, Ont.) is 1 1/3 innings of work away from surpassing the record of 35 innings pitched by James Byrnes (Mississauga, Ont.) of Humber last season.

As for team records, St. Clair set new standards for runs (163), hits (192) and strikeouts (143), while tying its own mark of 135 RBI.

RECENT RESULTS

UPCOMING GAMES

Source: OCAA Communications