CREDIT: JASON YOUNG / FANSHAWE ATHLETICS
Fanshawe's men's baseball team took home a silver medal in the OCAA Baseball Championships after a 9-8 loss against the St. Clair Saints.

Despite losing their final game of the season 9-8, there was a silver lining for the Fanshawe Falcons men’s baseball team, taking home a silver medal after winning a bronze medal last year. Taking home gold were the St. Clair Saints for the third consecutive year while completing a perfect season with a 23-0 record.

In the championship game Fanshawe scored two runs in the top of the first inning to take an early lead, but St. Clair wasted no time scoring five runs in the bottom of the inning. The Saints tacked on two more runs in the third for a 7-2 lead. Fanshawe threatened in the fourth when Cody Merner scored on a St. Clair error, followed by RBI singles from Tristan Buntrock, Carlos Arteaja and Sean Refflinghaus, closing the gap to 7-6.

With St. Clair leading 8-6 in the top of the sixth, Fanshawe scored on a walk. The Falcons tied the score at eight with Buntrock’s RBI, but were unable to maintain the momentum, giving up a run in the bottom of the seventh inning that would ultimately end with a heartbreaking Fanshawe loss of 9-8.

To get to the gold medal game the Falcons faced the Humber Hawks in what turned out to be an epic record setting game 11 inning game. The longest in OCAA playoff history.

“That was the longest medal game ever played in OCAA history and it was an honour to pitch in it… we displayed great heart and determination during the game,” said Falcon’s pitcher Andrew Calic.

To make it to the finals, Fanshawe scored early from several walks and hit batters that eventually scored offensive powerhouse Chris McQueen in the first inning. Arteaja then came home on a wild pitch, making it 2-0 for the home team. The Falcons continued their explosive offense in the second inning, when Refflinghaus hit an RBI single, followed by a Mike Ambrose sacrifice fly to make the score 4-0.

In the bottom of the second inning, the Hawks scored three runs of their own to close the gap to 4-3. Humber capitalized on scoring opportunities in the third and added two runs to go up 5-4.

In the sixth inning, Jeremy Noonan scored on another Humber wild pitch to tie the game at six. The game remained tied until the 11th inning, when Fanshawe’s Tyson Patrick walked and then preceded to advance to second on a sacrifice bunt by Buntrock. McQueen and Arteaja then both singled to load the bases for Fanshawe. Refflinghaus knocked a RBI single to score Patrick, and then Ambrose doubled, scoring McQueen and Arteaja.

Humber was unable to recover in the bottom of the 11th and Fanshawe won by a final of 8-5. Humber was awarded the OCAA men’s baseball bronze medal. Players of the game were Keegan Murphy for Humber and Chris McQueen for Fanshawe.

Fanshawe opened the championships at Labatt Park against Humber winning by a score of 5-3 on Friday, Oct. 23. Fanshawe scored four runs in the second inning, which would be enough offense to emerge victorious. Falcons’ pitcher Matt Smith was named the player of the game for Fanshawe, picking up six strikeouts on the day in a complete game in which he threw 131 pitches. Game two matched the first place St. Clair Saints and the Durham Lords. The result was a decisive 11-1 win in favour of the Saints.

Game three had St. Clair clinching a spot in the gold medal game after defeating Fanshawe by a final score of 7-2. The players of the game were Fanshawe’s Refflinghaus and St. Clair’s Shane Courtney.

“The thing about being a Falcon is that we continue fighting until the very end,” Calic said. “Our performance over the weekend was great, we made some amazing plays defensively, and we executed well at the plate.”

The championship MVP was St. Clair pitcher Shane Courtney. The championship all-star team consisted of Eric Cunningham (St. Clair), Teiden Frias (St. Clair), Sean Refflinghaus (Fanshawe), Matt Smith (Fanshawe) and Doug Skillicorn (Humber).