AURORA, ON - The Durham College men's baseball team opened their 2023 OCAA men's baseball campaign against the Humber Hawks, coming out of it with an 11-7 victory.

Humber scored first in the top half of the first inning, however the Lords had an answer for that in their at-bat. Zach Rivers (Oshawa, ON) scored from second base thanks to a Cole Cote (Welland, ON) double to tie he game.

Jacob Mahoney (Toronto, ON) hit a sacrifice fly in the net at-bat to send Cote to third and Ryan Mattes (Whitby, ON) across home plate for the lead. Cote would then score himself as the hot bats continued, with Griffin McMillan (Bowmanville, ON) hitting a double.

Eddie Borutskie (Newtonville, ON) brought two runners home, hitting a single and advanced to second base on an error as McMillan and Nick King (Whitby, ON) touched home plate for a 5-1 lead.

The Hawks scored three in the second to bring the game within one, but a massive solo home run off the bat of Cote, followed up by a run scored by Borutskie put the Lords back up 7-4.

Humber continued to chip away at the lead, but each time Durham had a response before they could get too close. Ultimately, the Lords won 11-7.

Jackson Painter (Whitby, ON), the started, picked up the win with 4.1 innings pitched, striking out six of 27 batters faced and walking only four. Charles Roy (Toronto, ON) came in relief, going 1.2 innings against eight batters.

Cote closed things out as he pitched in the seventh and final inning. At the plate, he finished the day 3-for-3 with three runs and two RBI's.

Rivers, Borutskie, King and Cruz Lopez (Brooklin, ON) each had two hits in the game and the Lords scored with seven different runners.

The Lords were scheduled to play their next game against the St. Clair Saints on Friday evening, however the game has been postponed to 9:00 AM on Saturday morning at Stewart Burnett Park in Aurora.

Winner will advance straight to the gold medal game, meanwhile the loser will play for bronze immediately following the game in an attempt for a backdoor entry into the gold medal game.

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