baseball odyssey ends with saints landing on ofsaa podium
it was a long road to the podium for the st. anne saint...
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the st. anne saints' evan schweyer tags out upper canada college's ronan o'neill during the ofsaa bronze medal game at stronach park in london.
mike hensen
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mike hensen/the london free pres
it was a long road to the podium for the st. anne saints.
what turned into a wild eight-day journey for the saints finally ended with a bronze-medal finish after a 7-2 win over the toronto upper canada college blues on wednesday at the ofsaa baseball final four in london.
“we talked to ofsaa people and asked if there was anything like this before and it was like, ‘no,’” said saints’ manager steve burke, who has handled the team for 16 years. “it was very difficult.”
it started on june 4 at the ofsaa west regional in windsor where back-to-back wins had the second-seeded saints set to face the top-seeded toronto bishop allen with the winner gaining the top seed to the final four.
however, rain on the second day of the tournament wiped out play on thursday and more rain on friday forced officials to come up with a new plan to finish the double-knockout event.
the st. anne saints’ nik larose pops up after easily stealing second base as upper canada college’s christopher nobrega tries for the tag during the ofsaa bronze medal game at stronach park in london.
mike hensen
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mike hensen/the london free pres
“quite honestly, it’s been pretty crazy,” st. anne’s nik larose said. “just the amount of school time we missed. thursday and friday was just waiting it out all day and having it pushed back.”
while the east regional final two were set, the final five teams in the west regional shifted to london to try and complete the schedule on tuesday.
“we went to london and had no clue how long we would be there,” the 17-year-old larose said. “whether is would be one game or four games.”
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st. anne beat defending champion bishop allen 4-0 to earn the top seed, but things got even more complicated after that in the double-knockout west regional.
the blues had to complete the final three innings of a game to oust tillsonburg glendale and then ousted riverside 7-6. that set up a showdown with bishop allen for the west region’s second seed, but it was suspended by rain tied at 7-7.
that shifted things to wednesday, which was supposed to be just the final four, but upper canada college needed nine innings to secure the second seed.
“it was one of those things where we didn’t know who would play or who would be able to pitch from one day to the next,” burke said. “exams are next week and kids are worried about marks and assignments and you had to be flexible. we just basically went with the next one up.”
disappointment for both west region teams awaited in the semis. the blue let a three-run lead slip away in a 4-3 loss to sudbury st. charles, which went on to win gold. meanwhile, st. anne’s hopes for its first gold medal since 2017 were dashed in the semis in a 3-2 loss to peterborough st. peters.
the saints rallied from a three-run deficit to make it a one-run game, but aaron schweyer’s deep shot that might have tied the game was snagged to end the threat.
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“gold was the goal and i thought we had the team, but sometimes the game doesn’t go your way,” larose said. “he cranked it, but the outfield was deep. in another situation, it would have dropped.”
the saints had little time to regroup against the blues, who jumped to an early one-run lead.
“l was worried after the first run and looked at the team and wondered, ‘did we not get over (semi loss) and would we give up?’” burke said. “‘what are we going to see?’ and our guys went after it and got the runs.”
the saints went ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the second inning and larose’s double made it a 4-1 game in the third inning.
the st. anne saints evan schweyer forces out upper canada college’s will greer during the ofsaa bronze medal game at stronach park in london.
mike hensen
/
mike hensen/the london free pres
“we got everyone back up,” larose said. “they put up one and we weren’t having that and just went inning by inning and put up seven (runs) in the end.”
right-hander jack emery was efficient and needed just 56 pitches to get through five innings to keep the blues in check.
“i just tried to treat like any other game and not get lost in the moment,” the 17-year-old emery said. “we wanted to be a top three team overall.
“to put it in perspective, we’re the third-best team in the province and we did it despite injuries and not having a full team all season. so, it means a lot.”
jpparker@postmedia.com
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