Saints Softball Split on Day One of CCSA Nationals

Kelowna, BC – The St. Clair College Women's Softball team split their two opening day games Friday at the Canadian Collegiate Softball Association National Championship hosted by the University of British Colombia (Okanagan) in Kelowna, BC.  St. Clair lost 7-6 to Humber College (Etobicoke) in their first game but rebounded nicely with an 8-3 victory over the University of Ottawa. 

The Saints trailed for much of the first game with Humber taking a 3-0 lead after four innings.  St. Clair got on the board with an Amy Claydon (Cambridge, ON) solo homerun in the fifth inning, but Humber extended their lead scoring a pair in the bottom half.  The teams traded runs in the sixth inning with Shae-Lyn Murphy (Windsor, ON) connecting for a solo homerun of her own.  Humber still led 6-2 heading to the 7^th.  The St. Clair comeback was in full swing after four straight hits combined with a Humber error allowed the Saints to force a final at-bat in the 7^th tied 6-6.  However, Humber was able to load the bases in the last and used a sac-fly to end the game. 

Claydon took the pitching loss for St. Clair allowing six earned runs on eight hits and five walks but did strikeout ten batters.  Murphy led the Saints offensively with three hits including two doubles to go with her long ball.  Julia Brusseau (Lakeshore, ON) and Rya Cowan (LaSalle, ON) each had two hits in the loss for the Saints. 

In the second game win St. Clair was able to go ahead 4-2 in the 1^st inning and added a run in the 2^nd for a 5-2 advantage.  Ottawa cut their deficit to 5-3 in the 3^rd inning, but the teams went scoreless until the 6^th inning.  Claydon then hit her second long fly of the day accounting for three runs which completed the scoring.  Claydon had two hits total in the game as did Judy Lafleur (Essex, ON).  Saints' rookie pitcher Allison Dufour (Amherstburg, ON) went the distance giving up just one earned run on three hits and a pair of walks but struck out an impressive ten batters. 

See below the remaining St. Clair schedule in the full round robin format being played at Kelowna's High Noon Park.

Sat, Oct. 9th

1:00pm (EST)           vs. University of Regina
3:30pm (EST)           vs. University of BC (Okanagan)

Sun, Oct. 10th

12:00pm (EST)         vs. University of Calgary

4:15pm (EST)           Bronze Medal Game (#3 Seed vs. #4 Seed)
4:45pm (EST)           Gold/Silver Medal Game (#1 Seed vs. #2 Seed)

Additional information can be found on the championship website at https://goheat.ca/sports/sball/Nationals with live streaming of the games at https://www.facebook.com/GoHeatSoftball