Marauders capture SOSSA baseball championship
Failure was not an option as far as Dennis Lescombe was concerned.
The 18-year-old, Grade 12 student found a way to get the job done despite battling a sore shoulder.
Lescombe pitched four solid innings in relief as the A.N. Myer Marauders held off the Saint Paul Patriots 6-5 to capture the Southern Ontario Secondary Schools Association boys baseball championship Thursday at Oakes Park.
The Marauders now advance to the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) championships next week in Whitby.
Lescombe also saw time on the mound earlier in the day in a 10-0 win over Ancaster in semifinal action.
Dennis Lescombe
“It was tough. I’ve been going through some shoulder problems too, but you gotta do what you have to in order to win,” Lescombe said.
Myer coach Dave Buchanan had faith his big right-hander would get the job done.
“At the end of the day we rode Dennis,” Buchanan said. “He stepped up, he wanted the ball. We kept asking him (if he wanted to come out) because he was tired, but you go with your best.
Buchanan felt Lescombe put the team on his shoulders.
“We got to SOSSA last year and lost in the second game and Dennis was on the mound, so this is redemption,” Buchanan said. “To take him out at that moment — we thought about it — but I wasn’t going to do it.”
Lescombe, who took over from starter Kyle Fortuna in the fourth inning, cruised through three scoreless innings until the seventh when the Patriots mounted a rally.
Anthony Stranges’ single with two outs drove home a pair of runs to narrow the gap to 6-5. An error then put the tying and winning runs on base, but Lescombe induced a pop up to snuff out the rally.
“Mainly just keep calm in a situation like that,” Lescombe said when asked about the final inning. “I had a lot of runners on base and if I don’t keep calm on the mound, I’m all over the place.
“Keep calm, throw strikes and hit the strike zone.”
Following the final out, the Marauders mobbed Lescombe before taking time to shake hands with the Patriots.
“It’s crazy. They’re a really good team. We’ve been playing with those kids all our life,” said Lescombe, who is taking the summer off and plans to attend Lethbridge College to play baseball. “Winning against a team like this is a boost for us because we haven’t played much this season. It makes us feel better.”
Buchanan admitted it was tough watching the final inning unfold.
“It’s never easy, especially when you put these two schools together,” he said. “I’m a nervous wreck, everything that I coach, all the time.
“Hats off to Saint Paul because they always compete.”
Saint Paul coach Antonio DeSimone was proud of his club.
“The one thing they know how to do is to rally and try and battle back. It’s not even just this season, it’s seasons prior,” DeSimone said.
The Patriots defeated the Zone 4 champion St. Francis 14-5 in extra innings to advance to the final.
“It was challenging in terms of pitching, trying to figure out and manage that, but we put it all on the line in this game because if you lose, you go home,” DeSimone said.
Marauders 6 Patriots 5
Mick and Angelo’s/Johnny Rocco’s Players of the Game: Myer’s Dennis Lescombe and Saint Paul’s Anthony Stranges.
A.N. Myer Marauders: Lescombe single; Owen Diodati single, double, two intentional walks, two runs scored; Willy Jackman single, run scored; Will Anderson 2 singles, 2 runs scored, walk; Kyle Fortuna single, walk.
Saint Paul Patriots: Stranges single, 2 doubles, 4 runs batted in; Leif Burciul single; James Egan single, walk, run scored; Dylan Paolone two walks, two runs scored; Matteo Cimato single; Cole Ross single, run scored.
On deck: The Marauders advance to the OFSAA championships in Whitby next week.
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