Bulldogs punch ticket to SOSSA
Brycen Brittain made the most of a rare opportunity to pitch Wednesday.
The 19-year-old catcher-third baseman tossed three scoreless innings to pick up the save as the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs defeated the West Niagara Wolfpack 5-1 to capture the Niagara Region Athletic Association Zone 4 AAA senior boys baseball championship at George Taylor Field in St. Catharines.
The Bulldogs now advance to the Southern Ontario Secondary School Associations (SOSSA) playdowns next week in Dundas.
Brittain, who started the game behind the plate, did not allow a hit, walked three and fanned four.
“It’s great,” Brittain smiled. “I always talk to my teammates that I have to get on the bump and see what happens. It wasn’t a bad performance today.”
Brittain also contributed at the plate with a single, run scored and a stolen base.
“He’s a great talent,” Sir Winston coach Drew Chapelle said. “He can play all over the field for us and he’s got a bright future ahead of him. He’s just going to keep doing great things and being a great leader.”
Brittain’s future includes two years at Cleveland’s Cuyahoga Community College of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NCJAA) Division beginning this fall.
“I’m very excited about that. It’s a great group of guys that I’m going down with,” Brittain said.
Brittain, who began playing at the club level with Bulletproof before moving on to the Ontario Royals, was his own marketing agent and caught the eye of the coaches at Cuyahoga.
“I’ve been talking with them. At first it was just sending videos out to coaches to any platform where coaches can see videos and e-mailing back and forth and then eventually getting a tour and an offer,” he said.
Brittain, who plans to major in exercise science, did a full day, full semester co-op as a teacher’s aid at Jeanne Sauve French Immersion Public School this year.
He is looking forward to SOSSA.
“Beyond (excited),” he said. “A couple of these boys have been with me where we came up just short so it’s huge. Always wanted to go to SOSSA.”
The win continues a dream season for the Bulldogs who are undefeated in the regular season and playoffs.
“I’m new to Sir Winston this year but coming in these guys have made it real easy for me,” Chapelle said. “A bunch of great kids, a bunch of great ballplayers. They’re working really hard so it’s been a lot of fun and we’re just going to keep enjoying the ride.”
Starter Owen Meloche picked up the win with four solid innings before giving way to Brittain.
Cadyn Wilson paced the offence with a pair of hits while Meloche, Jackson Hooper, Noah Hurst, Lake McCardle and Sebastian Heyward also had hits.
The Bulldogs topped the Governor Simcoe Redcoats 10-2 in the morning semifinal.
“One of the biggest things is always the pitching depth, making sure you have arms,” Chapelle said. “We were able to save a couple of our really good arms for this afternoon and bring our best for the championship, which is always a big help.”
Ollie Wall started for the Wolfpack and permitted seven hits and five runs over two innings to take the loss.
Wall and Logan Walker each had hits for West Niagara, which blanked Eden in their semifinal.
“Two of the pitchers I threw were catchers,” West Niagara coach Kevin Brown said. “It’s always a war of attrition. Who’s the deepest.”
Brown is looking forward to the future.
“We were very tight defensively. Nobody blew us out. We had a lot of Grade 9s and 10s,” he said. “In the next couple of years, we will be the team to beat.”
Thanks to Brock Sport Management student Bryce DesRoches for his statistical help with this story.
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