Myer baseball heading back to OFSAA
The A.N. Myer Marauders boys baseball team booked its fifth berth in the last six years the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations baseball championship was held with a 2-1 victory over the Saint Paul Patriots in the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association championship game.
In the final, the Marauders jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on hits by Erik Iseppon, Colby Webb and Zach Whalen, who also pitched in the game. The lead held up until the bottom of the seventh inning when the heart of Saint Paul’s order — Great Lakes Canadians pitcher Matt Donnison, all-star catcher Joe Vetrone and Jack Kemp — each recorded a hit to plate a run for the Patriots. Saint Paul loaded the bases with a hit batter before Myer captain Tim Somerville struck out the final two batters to record the save. Somerville finished with seven strikeouts in the game.
In the SOSSA semifinals versus Ancaster, Myer’s Jack Shannon hit a game-winning single down the first base line in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Marauders a 2-1 victory. Whalen started and threw four strong shutout innings while striking out seven. He was followed by Jason Burdon, another member of Myer’s strong Grade 11 contingent, who held Ancaster to one run over four innings.
“In SOSSA, the Hamilton/Niagara loop, we face some great competition,” Myer head coach Dave Buchanan said. “Every year they have great players and are a real challenge.”
When the last full season of high school baseball was played, Myer won the SOSSA championship and made it all the way to the OFSAA gold medal game before losing 7-6 to Humberside of Toronto. The Marauders made it OFSAA in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 and improved every year, finishing seventh, fifth, fifth and second.
“Our kids take great pride in the program,” Buchanan said. “They carry the past players’ successes with them and they all want to change our 2019 silver to a gold this year.”
Myer will compete in the 18-school OFSAA tournament this week and next week in Toronto and Windsor.
“Myer has developed a strong program with a great reputation and the seeding committee recognized that and made them the No 2 seed in the West Division,” he said.
Buchanan is confident in his team heading to the provincial championship.
“We have good deep pitching and good team defence. As long as both hold up and we can get some timely hits, we should do well.”
Myer breezed through a shortened regular season before surviving a stiff challenge from E.L. Crossley in the Zone 3 final.
The Marauders will head to OFSAA with a 13-0 record on the heels of winning the Garth Webb tournament in Burlington. Myer defeated Garth Webb 17-0, Milton 11-0, Ancaster 4-3 and Iroquois Hills 3-1 in the finals to win the event.
“Garth Webb was a good tuneup,” Buchanan said. “We got great pitching from Jack Shannon, Whalen and Burdon but also from our younger Grade 9s like Luca Valvo, Cole Bateman, Jeff Vormittag and Sawyer Neal.”
