OSHAWA, Ont. – The Durham College men's baseball team will open the OCAA men's baseball championship presented by belairdirect against the defending champion St. Clair Saints.
As the third seed, the Lords go head-to-head with the Saints at 1:30 p.m. Friday, while the first-place Humber Hawks face the fourth-place Fanshawe Falcons to open the tournament at 11 a.m.
All games are hosted at Kinsmen Memorial Stadium.
This season the Lords and Saints split their season series with a 2-2 record. Durham split both doubleheaders, home and away, but the Saints outscored the Lords 20-11 over those four games.
"We're looking forward to hosting a great weekend of baseball here at Kinsmen," said Durham College head coach
Sam Dempster. "We know the championship weekend is like a new season, so we've spent the last week working hard to ensure we're ready for what will be a grueling weekend. Our team has had some success this year against each team we can face over the weekend, but we need to bring our best to have a chance at winning a medal at home."
Durham's
Reagan Manley (Peterborough, Ont.) led the team with a .382 batting average, 21 hits, eight stolen bases and 11 RBI. On the other side of the diamond, Brendan Renaud finished with a .411 batting average, 23 hits and 21 RBI for the Saints.
Turning attention to the mound,
Alec Brown (Bowmanville, Ont.) finished with an impressive 5-1 record, while posting a 2.12 ERA. He finished with 38 strikeouts – putting him at 82 in his career, only six back of Durham's program leader
Brodie Harkness at 88. With his five wins he did become the Lords' all-time OCAA wins leader with 12.
St. Clair's Micah Harris started the most games for the Saints, finishing with a 3-1 record. Over 29.1 innings he finished with a 1.91 ERA, posting 19 strikeouts.
The weekend kicks off with the championship banquet on Thursday night, where the league all-stars, coach of the year, pitcher of the year, batting champion, rookie of the year and player of the year awards are handed out.
Tournament passes for the weekend are $10, while day passes are $7 for adults and $5 for seniors. Children 12 & under are free.
