By Tyler Milton

Humber Athletics

TECUMSEH, Ont. - Humber came into Friday looking to begin their championship run by picking up two wins before moving on to Saturday.

In game one, Humber took on a Durham team in which they split with in their regular season matchup. Humber would be victorious behind strong pitching and timely hitting, winning 6-1.

Game two saw the Hawks take on the reigning OCAA champions in St. Clair College, whom they won three out of their four games against this season. Humber would drop the night cap, 10-0.

Humber 6 Durham 1

Looking to start their post-season run, Humber turned to ace Steve Hough on the bump to get the Hawks rolling. Hough would be masterful in this outing, keeping the Lords' offence off the board until the fifth inning. His ability to mix speeds and his pitches throughout the game kept the Durham hitters bats quiet. In all, Hough would throw a complete game, five-hitter to ensure the Hawks their first win of the OCAA Championship.

Offensively, the Hawks jumped out to an early lead in the first inning on a Dennis Dei Baning RBI double which cashed Liam Sutherland and Keegan Murphy. Humber would add another run in the third as Andrew Thomson drove in Murphy from second base. Following the trend of the game and answering right back to Durham's run earlier in the frame, Humber would tack on three more insurance runs in the fifth to secure the Hawks the win. Murphy would go 3-for-4 at the plate scoring three runs, and Dennis Dei Baning would go 2-for-3 with the double and two RBIs mentioned earlier. 

St. Clair 10 Humber 0

After a strong performance in game one of the day, Humber looked to win the night cap against St. Clair and advance straight to the gold-medal game. Head coach Denny Berni turned to Dylan Perego to secure the Hawks their second win of the day.

Unfortunately for Perego, the Humber defence would let him down as they would commit five errors in the game. Perego would allow nine of the 10 runs, but only four of the runs would be earned. In the end, Perego, would go three-plus innings, allow eight hits, two walks and had two punch outs. Stephen Narhabeki would come on to relieve Perego, and Narhabeki would allow three hits in his 11/3 innings of work. 

At the plate, Humber's bats were left back at the hotel as they only accumulated two hits in their 19 at-bats in the game. In all seven batters would reach base, which had the Hawks stuck in the mud all game long.

Hawk Notes

- Humber is ensured a medal at the OCAA Championship

- Humber would need to win out to win a gold medal

- Fanshawe and Humber will meet for the second year in a row on Saturday morning in this very same situation