The St. Clair College Women's Fastball team won their second consecutive OCAA Provincial Championship Saturday in Hamilton with a stunning upset of top seed Durham in the final. St. Clair relegated to the losers bracket after Day 1 defeated Seneca 5-1 before upending Durham 4-2 and 8-7 in dramatic fashion to claim their third Gold Medal in the program's eight year history. St. Clair duplicated the same feat from year ago when they needed to defeat Durham twice in the Gold Medal final in the double knock-out format. This time the Saints accomplished it with a rookie laden line-up that included 11 new players on the roster from a year ago.

In the Saturday morning Semi-final Candice Gatecliffe (Merlin) took the ball on the mound throwing a complete game 5-hitter to defeat Seneca 5-1. Keri Bagley (Windsor- ssumption) had a pair of hits and an RBI to lead St. Clair at the plate. Jennifer Gilroy earned Player of the Game honours with outstanding defence behind the plate to go with an RBI hit. The win advanced the Saints to the Gold Medal final, while Seneca was awarded the bronze medal.

In a must win game for the Saints, Gatecliffe pitched another complete game against Durham and did not allow an earned run spreading out 6 hits to take her 3rd win of the tournament and the Player of the Game Award as the Saints extended the Gold Medal final to a second and final game as the defeated Durham 4-2. Gatecliffe helped her own cause as she had a pair of hits to help the Saints offensively. Trisha Whaley (Chatham) had a single and a triple while Samantha Newton (Windsor-Catholic Central) had 2 doubles to go with 2 RBI's.

Capping an unbelievable comeback, Gatecliffe pitched the Saints to the Championship with another complete game as the Saints defeated Durham 8-7 to capture their second consecutive OCAA Women's Fastball gold.. This time she did just enough in holding the powerful Durham line-up down while the offense carried the day. St. Clair pounded out 13 hits as a team with Newton, Whaley and Gilroy leading the way with 3 hits apiece. Newton had 2 RBI's while Gilroy had 3 RBI's as St. Clair scored 3 runs in the 6th inning after trailing for most of the game.

Gatecliffe was decorated with the OCAA Championship Top Pitcher Award going 4-0 on the mound over 28 innings with a stingy 2.25 ERA. Newton was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player batting 0.533 and led the team with 5 RBI's over the weekend.

Championship Pitcher: #14 - Candice Gatecliffe, St. Clair
Top Player: #8 - Samantha Newton, St. Clair
Fair Play Award: Rosemary Theriault

Results
Game 1: Durham 10 - Conestoga 0
Game 2: St. Clair 4 - Seneca 1
Game 3: Seneca 3 - Conestoga 1
Game 4: Durham 6 - St. Clair 0
Game 5: St. Clair 5 - Seneca 1 (Seneca awarded bronze medal)
Game 6: St. Clair 4 - Durham 2
Game 7: St. Clair 8 - Durham 7 (St. Clair wins gold medal)

Gold: St. Clair Saints
Silver: Durham Lords
Bronze: Seneca Sting

(Courtesy of St. Clair Athletics)