PERTH – The Seaway Spartans exited the EOSSAA baseball championship Wednesday morning (May 29th), losing 5-1 to the Holy Cross Crusaders from Kingston.
The Spartans took their first game in the two-day tournament in Perth, a 7-0 shut out. They defeated the team from Smiths Falls District Collegiate Institute. Ben Lapier had a grand slam in the second inning of the rain-shortened game.
Seaway then advanced to the tournament semi-final, where they took on the Crusaders. Holy Cross slammed a two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning off of Seaway pitcher Owen Fetterly. The Spartans trailed the Crusaders through to the top of the fifth inning when Dean Lapier’s RBI single with the bases loaded brought home Collin VanHoof and cut Holy Cross’ lead in half.
The Crusaders answered back in the bottom of the inning, driving home three runs off of Lapier, who took over the pitcher’s mound.
The Spartans couldn’t catch a break from the Holy Cross reliever in the top of the sixth, retiring the Seaway batters 1-2-3. Ben Lapier locked down the bottom of the inning, allowing only two hits while the Seaway outfielders made quick work of the inning.
Needing four runs in the seventh and final inning, Kayne McCadden had a base-hit single, but that was all the Spartans could manage. Seaway fell to Holy Cross, who moved on to the EOSSAA baseball final against North Grenville District High School.
“Holy Cross had a really strong pitcher,” said coach Carrie Gilmour. “We have a super young team, I think we played a strong defence but we couldn’t get the bats going today.”
Spartans are SDG baseball champs
CORNWALL – Shut out in the finals in their first two years playing in the league, the Seaway Spartans claimed their first SDG County baseball championship May 23rd in Cornwall.
The Spartans started off on May 22nd with big back-to-back win, defeating the Char-Lan Crusaders 10-1 and the St. Joe’s Panthers 7-2. Seaway’s undefeated play seeded the team automatically into the championship final. The Panthers and Holy Trinity Falcons played in the semi-final, with St. Joe’s advancing.
Going into the final, coach Carrie Gilmour said that the team was ready for the rematch against the Panthers.
“The boys were focused and really prepared to do well,” she said.
Seaway’s bats were on fire in the first inning, taking a 9-1 lead over St. Joe’s and not looking back. A three-run homer by Dean Lapier helped in that effort.
The Spartans’ pitching staff shut down most of the Panthers offence, allowing only three more runs. Seaway added three more of their own including a home run by Ben Lapier. The Spartans hit the sticks all the way to the final inning, and claimed the championship with a 12-4 win.
“They really played some great baseball today,” Gilmour said of the team after the championship win.
She added that she felt the future for baseball at Seaway was bright.
“We’re losing a two Grade 12 players (Kendrew Byers and Dean Lapier) but a majority of the team are in Grade 10,” Gilmour said.
This is only the third year Seaway has had a baseball team. In 2017, the team broke the dominence of the Panthers and Falcons in county baseball.
The Spartans upset the Falcons in that year’s semi-final match, but were shut out by the Panthers in the final 11-0.
The following year had the Spartans break a tie with the Panthers by point-differential to punch their ticket to the 2018 finals. The Falcons claimed a 5-0 win over the Spartans that year.
Seaway will now represent SDG at the six-team EOSSAA baseball championship tournament May 28-29th in Perth.
The winner from there will advance to the East Region classic win Whitby in early June.
