Good Opening Day at National Championship for St. Clair Women's Softball

Carp, ON – The St. Clair College Women's Softball team had a good opening day at the Canadian Collegiate Softball Association National Championship going 2-0 on Friday to start the defense of their back-to-back titles.  The Saints beat the University of Western Ontario (London) 10-3 and then followed it up with a 6-4 victory over the University of Calgary.  The event is being hosted by the University of Ottawa at the Carp Fairground in Carp, ON. 

St. Clair was tied 2-2 with Western in the opening game before adding a single run in each of the next three innings but secured the mercy victory after a 5-run 5^th.  Judy Lafleur (Essex, ON/Essex) for the Saints after going 4-for-4 to go with an RBI and scoring twice.  St. Clair's Shae-Lyn Murphy (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) had two singles and three RBI as teammate Ashton Fong (Colwood, BC) picked up the win on the pitching strip spreading out nine hits over five innings giving up three earned runs and a walk while striking out three Mustang batters. 

Down 4-1 after three innings to Calgary the Saints used another 5-run 5^th to complete the comeback win.  Zahnyah Jackson (Brampton, ON) was named Player of the Game for St. Clair after two hits including a double that helped her score twice.  Lafleur had two more hits with a double and two RBI adding a run scored for the Saints.  Kirsten Kipfer (Mitchell, ON) came on in relief to earn the win shutting out Calgary over 4.1 IP giving up just one hit to go with three strikeouts. 

The Saints finish pool play on Saturday at 11:30am against Humber College (Etobicoke) before quarterfinal and semifinal play begins later in the day.  The championship concludes on Sunday with the Bronze Medal game at 10:00am followed by the Gold/Silver Medal game at 12:30pm.