By Dan Haugh
Canadian Baseball Network
In only their third year of existence the Fanshawe Falcons have captured a National Championship.

The Falcons defeated OCAA rival St. Clair Saints 2-1 in the Gold Medal game of the inaugural National College Championships in Oshawa on the weekend of Oct. 28-30.

“The kids played amazing all weekend long,” Fanshawe head coach Brian Harvey said, “They persevered throughout the tournament, even when we were behind in the final championship game.”

The Falcons reached the championship game by shutting out the host Durham Lords 5-0 on the strength of a strong complete game pitching performance by Kyle Zimmer who was named the tournament’s All-star left-handed pitcher.

Meanwhile the St. Clair Saints made their way to the championship game with an eighth-inning walk-off win over Charlottetown, PEI’s Holland College Hurricanes. St. Clair’s Kyle Breitner held the Hurricane’s to only one hit in the game, a home run by outfielder Josh MacDonald who was named to the tournament All-star team. Matt Bassingthwaighte had the game-winning pinch hit that sent the Dave Cooper coached Saints to the Gold Medal game.

There were six teams entered the Humber Hawks, Durham Lords, St. Clair and Fanshawe from OCAA and Holland College from PEI and John Abbott College from Quebec.

St. Clair entered the national tournament on the heels of their fourth consecutive OCAA championship where it had defeated the Falcons in the Gold Medal game.

“I’m not sure it’s a rivalry, but we have always told our players, if you want to win a championship, you know it’s going to have to go through St. Clair.” Harvey said when speaking of the Saints who have provided their main competition over the past three seasons. “I have the utmost respect for what has been for many years, the best program at the OCAA level. We were the first team this year to beat St. Clair and stop their 41-game win streak.”

In the Gold Medal game, the Falcons held the Saints to their lowest run total of the season relying on great defense and strong pitching.

St. Clair took an early 1-0 lead in the second inning on a wild pitch, but Fanshawe came back in the top of the third with a pair of runs on four hits to take a lead that they would hold to the end.

“In the gold medal game Fanshawe showed a ton of grit and made a handful of outstanding defensive plays to squash potential rallies. Their pitchers threw strikes and were ahead of our hitters.” St. Clair Coach Dave Cooper said.

Fanshawe coach Harvey described what he thought was a turning point in the game.

”In the second inning our left-fielder (and OCAA rookie-of-the-year) Robert Doyle rushed over to cut off a ball hit down the line by St. Clair’s Miguel Cienfuegos. Doyle threw a bullet one-bounce throw to second for a bang-bang out, that lifted the whole team and made the fans go crazy. That play gave our whole team confidence as well, and our pitchers threw ahead in the count and never got behind in the count.”

Fanshawe used three pitchers, Bryan Hames, Tyler Rymal and Robert Doyle to shut down the Saints’ offence over the next five innings on just four hits.

For St. Clair starting pitcher Shane Courtney pitched a complete game allowing two earned runs on seven hits and a walk.

Round robin play finished with St. Clair winnig Pool A with a 3-0 mark, while Holland and Humber were each 1-2. Durham and Fanshawe were 2-1 atop pool B, while John Abbott was 0-3. Holland defeated Humber 2-0 in the tie breaker.

Fanshawe’s Brian Hames was named tournament MVP.

MAJOR AWARD WINNERS
MVP - Bryan Hames (Fanshawe)
Top Pitcher - Kyle Breitner (St. Clair)
Gold Glove - Carlos Arteaja (Fanshawe)

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
C - Jesse Holman (Holland)
1B - Bryan Hames (Fanshawe)
2B - Zev Weisdorf (Fanshawe)
SS - Jay Oram (Holland)
3B - Max Ayarza (St. Clair)
OF - Josh MacDonald (Holland)
OF - Kevin Dion (St. Clair)
OF - Tyler Wood (Fanshawe)
DH - Jack Rankin (Durham)
LHP - Kyle Zimmer (Fanshawe)
RHP - Kyle Breitner (St. Clair)

Fanshawe edges St. Clair to win national invitational