August 3, 2022

Windsor Stars Capture 2022 Senior AAA Men’s Elimination Title

By Dan Estey

COBA Major

The Windsor Stars are the 2022 Senior AAA Men’s elimination champions after defeating the Sarnia Brigade in the final game by a score of 10-5.

The Stars, who were undefeated heading into the final Monday afternoon, were pushed to the brink by the Brigade as they won the first game against the Stars that afternoon 16-8.

Windsor bounced back in the finale with a 10-5 victory over Sarnia, while the rest of Ontario watched the two Western Ontario clubs battle.

The Stars won a pair of games on the opening day of the tournament as they defeated the Erindale Cardinals by a score of 8-1 (WP-Jack Zimmerman) and followed that up with a win over the Ilderton River Hawks by a score of 3-2 (WP-Kimani Bailey). On Saturday, Windsor only had one game as they took on the Burlington Brants and were able to win it by a score of 13-0 in five innings (WP-Seth Chauvin).

On Sunday, the Stars then took on the Etobicoke Rangers after getting a bye through the Sunday morning set of games. They took this one by a score of 13-3 (WP-Josh Shepley). Sitting at 4-0, Windsor entered the Final Five and for a date with the Newmarket Hawks of the GTBL. This game went back and forth through the evening but the Stars prevailed with a 5-4 win, scoring a run late in this one to take it home. (WP-Jake Rajsigl)

This put Windsor into Monday at the eliminations and with a 5-0 record they got the bye directly to the championship game. After the Sarnia Brigade beat the Etobicoke Rangers 6-0 (WP-Mike Damchuk; his second shutout of the weekend), it set up the final between Windsor and Sarnia with the Stars needing to be defeated twice.

Game 1 was a tight affair for the first few innings but the Brigade got to starter Jack Zimmerman and continued to poor on the offence against Dane Little and Chris Renaud out of the pen as they took this game by a score of 16-8 (WP-Greg Ross, SV-Derek Masse, LP-Zimmerman)

This set up a winner-take-all final between the two clubs. With a packed house at Cullen Field, the Brigade sent veteran Wade Babula to the mound while the Stars countered with Bailey for his second start of the tournament. Sarnia took a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning but the Stars got the bats going early in this one as they were able to plate six in the second inning to take a quick 6-1 lead and chase Babula from the game early.

Nick Baljeu followed him to the mound and while the Stars were able to get a few more runs off him, he did a good job of silencing the Windsor bats for a bit as Sarnia was able to eat away at the Stars lead and make it 8-4.

Windsor was able to add a pair of runs late to take a 10-4 lead. Seth Chauvin entered the game in the sixth and had a clean inning for the Stars. The Brigade didn’t go down quietly though as they were able to push a run across and had a pair of runners on base. Chauvin was able to re-group himself and get the last out of the game on strikes, making the final score 10-5 (WP-Bailey; LP-Babula).

This will be the first trip to the Canadians for Windsor since it won five years in a row from 2008 to 2012. They hosted the Canadians in 2013 at the Mic Mac Sports Complex winning gold that year.

The Stars are run by longtime head coach Ron Smith. This year’s edition of the national senior Canadian championship will take place Aug. 25 to Aug. 28 in Sydney, N.S. with the Sydney Sooners acting as the hosts.