St. Clair College Women’s Softball Win Second Consecutive OCAA Gold
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The St. Clair College Women’s Softball team had to sweep three games on Saturday at Connorvale Park in Etobicoke to earn their second consecutive OCAA Championship Gold Medal hosted by Humber College.
The Saints started with an 11-0 mercy shortened win over Humber before dropping Durham College (Oshawa) twice by scores of 17-3 and 8-3.
St. Clair took a 1-0 lead in the second inning of the Humber win before adding two runs in the third. Four runs in each of the next two innings secured the mercy shortened verdict and a trip to the gold medal round. Bryanna Kressler (Kitchener, ON) held Humber to just one hit and walk while striking out eight in the pitching win. The long ball propelled the offense as the Saints clubbed three homeruns courtesy of a solo shot from Player of the Game Julia Brusseau (Lakeshore, ON/St. Anne), a 2-run dinger from Sierra Baltzer (LaSalle, ON/Sandwich) and a 3-run whack from Amy Claydon (Cambridge, ON). Baltzer finished five RBI and two hits while Claydon had three hits and 3 RBI. Jacklyn Yewchyn (Windsor, ON/Kennedy) and Brusseau each had with two hits in the game that served Humber with the Bronze Medal.
In game one of the gold medal round with Durham, the Saints’ bats were unstoppable and led to 18 hits as a team led by Shae-Lyn Murphy (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) and Judy Lafleur (Essex, ON/Essex) who each had three apiece. Power hitting was displayed again with Claydon, Kressler, Yewchyn and Alivia Peterson (Windsor, ON/St. Anne) all clearing the fence for St. Clair. Claydon and Yewchyn each drove in three runs to top the Saints in run production. Kressler pitched the first four innings for the win striking out seven Lords while giving up three hits and three walks which led to a pair of earned runs. Mckenna Copley (Dover Centre) threw the final three innings in relief to help force the if necessary game.
In the deciding game St. Clair put a quick run on the board in the first inning thanks to another Claydon homerun but she outdid herself in the third inning with a 3-run clout to give her team a commanding lead. The advantage grew to 6-0 in the fifth inning when Kressler hit a 2-run homer of her own, but Durham cut the lead in half with a 3-run poke in the bottom half. The Saints added two more runs in the seventh inning and starting pitcher Kressler began the celebration after setting down the Lords in order to end the game. She finished the game with 14 strikeouts while giving up just three hits and a walk with only one earned run against which resulted in her recognition as the Player of the Game. All told she pitched 16 innings on the day in the three victories for St. Clair.
Murphy was named to the Championship All-Star team after batting .316 adding two RBI as was Kressler who batted .368 with nine RBI to go with three homeruns. Due to their impact on the weekend Claydon and Kressler were named Co-MVP’s for the Championship. Kressler added four pitching wins to her hitting prowess while Claydon was nearly perfect at the plate batting .800 and her five homeruns left an indelible impression not to mention 13 RBI.
