The St. Clair College Saints Women's Softball team captured its seventh Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) Women's Softball Championship provincial title Saturday afternoon after a dramatic 6-5 walk-off win over Durham College (Oshawa) at home.
Durham advanced to the gold medal round with a narrow 1-0 win over top seeded Humber (Etobicoke) earlier in the day but came out of the gate with energy in the top of the first with a homerun, taking advantage of a St. Clair miscue for an early 2-0 lead. The Saints answered in their bottom half with an Emily Owen (Windsor, ON/Holy Names) round tripper that cleared the centerfield fence.
Taylor Kana (Springfield, ON) then led off the second inning with another solo homerun to draw St. Clair even. Owen then plated a pair of teammates with a double to make it a 4-2 Saints advantage. Durham was unfazed, hitting a pair of solo dingers in the third inning, knotting the game up at 4-4.
St. Clair catcher Ashley Marchand (Fergus, ON/Centre Wellington) hit a deep fly to make it 5-4 in their half of the inning, which is where the score stood until the final frame.
In the top of the seventh inning, Durham used a double and a single to tie it at 5-5, which was a bid to force a second gold medal game in the double knockout format. But the drama was elevated for the home crowd when St. Clair pinch hitter Zahnyah Jackson (Brampton, ON) led off the bottom half with a triple to the wall in right centerfield which set the stage for second baseman Chloe Cole (LaSalle, ON/St. Thomas of Villanova). Cole had several sharp foul balls but drove a hard ground ball on the seventh pitch of the at-bat through the left side to score Jackson, sealing the gold medal and kicking off the celebration.
Rookie hurler Kamryn Hazell (Chatham, ON) earned her second pitching win of the championship for St. Clair after throwing four effective innings in relief with no walks and a pair of strikeouts. Marchand was named Player of the Game for the Saints after going 2-for-3 at the plate and was impressive defensively behind the dish.
St. Clair's Owen was named the OCAA Championship Most Valuable Player, batting .462 over four games which included two homers and led the Saints with six RBI in the tournament while displaying strong defensive skills in left field. Marchand (.462, 2 HR) and Hazell (2.10 ERA) were also named to the Championship All-Star team for St. Clair.
The Saints finished the season with a 28-8 overall record including exhibition and championship play. This is the third time in school history that the Women's Softball team were able to win both the CCSA National and OCAA Provincial crown.