OSHAWA, Ont. - The Durham College men's baseball team see their season stay alive for another day after falling to the Lambton Lions and defeating the Centennial Colts on day two of the 2024 OCAA Men's Baseball Championship.

As the second seed in the OCAA, the Lords advanced past day one of the championship and awaited an opponent, eventually the hosts, in the quarter-final.

The first two innings against the Lambton Lions were scoreless before the Lions scored three in the top of the third. Durham responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning when a single hit by Ryan Mattes sent Evan Chong around third base to home to open the scoring for the Lords.

Lambton extended their lead to 4-1 through five innings.

With two outs on the board in the bottom of the sixth, the Lords' bats got hot as RBI singles from Erik Smith, Zach Rivers and Chong on back-to-back-to-back at-bats scored four runs to give the Lords their first lead of the game. Chong would also score before the end of the inning to grab a 6-4 lead.

The Lions had an instant response as they made their way back to the plate, scoring four runs in the top of the seventh to take an 8-6 lead before shutting down the Lords in the bottom half of the inning to secure the win and send the Lords down the losers' path of the bracket.

Smith went 3-for-4 at the plate with one run and an RBI. Chong also made contact three of four times at the plate, with a pair of runs and RBI's.

Nick King pitched for 6.0 innings, striking out three batters. Connor Rodwin came in for the final inning and struck out two of six hitters faced.

There would be a very short break before Durham had to take on the Centennial Colts with their season on the line.

Centennial struck first, hitting a single with two runners on base with one of them scoring.

Following a couple of scoreless innings, Mattes tied the game with a run and Griffin Oliver scored not long later, giving the Lords their first lead of the game. Evan Torres and Zach Rivers scored twice to extend the lead to three and the Lords held on for a 4-1 win.

Oliver was a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate, scoring one run. Mark Baxter pitched the entirety of the 7.0 innings, striking out seven and only allowing three hits.

The season stays alive as the Lords will look to advance to the gold medal game on Saturday via the bronze medal pathway. The Lords will either have a rematch with the Lambton Lions or take on the St. Clair Saints at 10:00 AM.

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