Women's Softball Settle for National Bronze

Carp, ON – The St. Clair College Women's Softball team settled for a National Bronze Medal Sunday at the Canadian Collegiate Softball Association Championship finishing the weekend with a 4-1 record.  The Saints finished pool play with a 3-0 record after beating Humber Polytechnic (Etobicoke) 8-6 Saturday afternoon but fell to them later that evening in the semi-finals by a score of 7-5.  St. Clair bested the University of Western Ontario (London) 11-1 in the bronze game Sunday morning.  The 8-team championship was hosted by the University of Ottawa at Carp Fairground in Carp, ON and the Saints continued a streak of four straight national medals including back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023. 

In the pool play win over Humber on Saturday St. Clair came back from 5-0 deficit using a 5-run 4^th inning and a 3-run 5^th to secure the victory.  Judy Lafleur (Essex, ON/Essex) had three singles that drove in a run and scored once to lead the Saints offensively while Kamryn Coombs (Atwood, ON) had two hits including a double with two RBI and two runs scored.  Kirsten Kipfer (Mitchell, ON) threw five innings in relief for St. Clair in the win giving up a run on two hits and three walks but struck out four.

Humber played an additional game in the quarterfinals to setup the semifinal rematch and the Saints took an early 4-1 lead. Humber tied it up in the 4^th inning with three runs and overtook St. Clair with a single in the 5^th.  The Saints tied it up in the 6^th inning but gave up the deciding two runs in the 7^th.  Lafleur had a key early triple and finished the game with three RBI while Shae-Lyn Murphy (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) was 3-for-4 with a run scored for St. Clair. 

In the bronze medal win over Western the Saints needed only four innings to secure the mercy shortened verdict with Danna Juarez (Airdrie, AB) pitching the distance surrendering only an unearned run on three hits and a walk while helping her cause with a triple and two runs scored at the plate.  Lafleur and Murphy each also had three hits and one RBI in the St. Clair win. 

The Saints are the #3 seed at the OCAA Provincial Championship and begin play in Oshawa on Thursday with a quarterfinal game against #6 Sheridan College (Brampton).  First pitch is scheduled for 3:00pm and details for the event hosted by Durham College at their campus Ken Babcock Field including live stream links can be found at https://ocaachampionships.prestosports.com/championships/soft/2024-25/index