Banner Season: Varsity Blues, Warriors cruise to semifinal victories en route to title game
Hamilton, Ont. (via McMaster Marauders) – The Toronto Varsity Blues and Waterloo Warriors will battle it out for the OUA title tomorrow after securing convincing victories on Day 1 of OUA Championship competition at Bernie Arbour Stadium in Hamilton on Friday.
Toronto, who last secured the conference banner in 2021, defeated the host McMaster Marauders 6-1 in the first semifinal game of the day.
The Varsity Blues opened the scoring in the bottom of the 1st. Sam Aslanowicz singled to get on base and advanced to second on a ground out by Owen Taylor. Aslanowizc stole third and made it home on a sacrifice fly by teammate, Niko Kekatos.
The Varsity Blues added two to their lead in the third, with the top of the order performing once again. Aslanowicz scored his second run of the day while Kekatos doubled to bring in Taylor for the score.
Kristyan Puyol-Genossar stole home in the bottom of the sixth to make the advantage 4-0 Toronto. Having an impressive first day, Aslanowicz scored his third of the day in the seventh.
The McMaster Marauders got on the board in the 8th with Matt Underwood getting home on a line drive single by Anthony Polowick.
The Varsity Blues added one more in the 8th to secure the 6-1 victory and book their ticket to the Championship finale.
In search of their first-ever OUA Baseball Championship title, the Waterloo Warriors earned an 8-3 victory over the Carleton Ravens.
The Ravens were the first to score in the opening inning, thanks to a wild pitch by the Warriors. Waterloo responded in the second with runs scored by Jayden Kemp and Alessandro Strazzeri, thanks to a Sam Shepherd single.
The Warriors recorded an impressive five runs over five straight at-bats in the fourth inning, starting with two scores on back-to-back bases-loaded walks. Sean Skorupski had a sacrifice fly at the next at-bat to bring Adam Leatherland home for the score. Kemp then grounded into a fielder’s choice to get Evan Morrison the score. Nolan Misa recorded the final run of the inning on a Strazzaeri single.
Waterloo added another run in the sixth to make the score 8-1 while Carleton added two runs of their own in the sixth but wouldn’t get any closer, securing the Warriors a berth in the gold medal game.
Jacob Ray was impressive in the contest, recording ten strikeouts and a .105 batting average against in the victory.
Saturday’s bronze medal game featuring the McMaster Marauders and Carleton Ravens is set for 10:00AM while the first pitch of the gold medal contest between the Toronto Varsity Blues and Waterloo Warriors will get underway at 1:30PM.
