Cowan Headlines Saints Softball and Baseball OCAA Awards
London/Ajax, ON – 2nd year Saints infielder and pitcher Rya Cowan (LaSalle, ON/Sandwich) was named the OCAA Women's Softball Player of the Year at the Championship Awards Banquet held at London's Four Points by Sheraton Thursday night. The 2nd year Graphic Design student and OCAA All-Star became 7th player in St. Clair history to achieve this honour and the 8th time a Saint has won the award. This makes it back to back years in this category for St. Clair as Michaela Rilett was named the recipient last season.
Cowan batted .449 which was 4th in the OCAA but led the league in homeruns with 6 and nearly eclipsed the record for RBI's in a season with 36. She also toed the rubber for 46 innings pitched with a respectable 3.80 ERA and a 5-2 record to go with 6 complete games thrown.
Joining Cowan as an OCAA All-Star was 3rd year shortstop Jenna Hillman (Windsor, ON/Tecumseh Vista Academy) who played every inning this past season with the 3rd best batting average in the league at .453 with sparkling defense up the middle. Hillman was 2nd in stolen bases with 13 and 3rd in runs scored while crossing the plate 30 times for the Saints.
The 3rd place St. Clair Women's Softball team (15-9) begins their OCAA Championship quest on Friday facing off against 2nd place Durham College (19-5) at 11:00am being hosted at Fanshawe College over the next two days. Top seed Humber College (19-5) takes on 4th place Conestoga College (14-10) at 9:00am Friday in the double knockout tournament with the medals being decided Saturday afternoon.
The Baseball Championship Awards were also held this evening at the Ajax Convention Centre with Saints 7th year bench boss Dave Cooper receiving the highest honour as OCAA Coach of the Year. Cooper has won this award two other times and led St. Clair to within a game of 1st place with a 13-5 regular season record. The Saints were only edged out on a tie-breaker for the 2nd seed at the Championship tournament being hosted by Durham College at Oshawa's Kinsmen Memorial Stadium over the next two days.
A trio of St. Clair players were named OCAA All-Stars including 1st year pitcher Luis Barrios (Cali, Columbia), first baseman Michael McKay (Miramichi, NB) and centerfielder Brendan Renaud (Amherstburg, ON/St. Thomas of Villanova).
Barrios led the league in strikeouts with 42 total in 30.1 innings pitched averaging 9.69 K's per 9 innings. He was 3-2 on the season which included a no-hit performance and 1.85 ERA which was the 2nd best in the OCAA behind teammate Travis Snyder (Battle Creek, MI). McKay anchored the St. Clair infield with speed on the base paths with 9 swipes (2nd OCAA) while batting .389 (7th OCAA). Renaud tied for 4th in the league with 15 RBI's while batting .327 on the season.
The 2nd seed St. Clair Baseball team takes on host Durham College (12-6) at 1:30pm Friday which follows the matchup between top seed Humber (13-5) and 4th place Seneca College (10-8). The 4-team double knockout format will conclude Saturday with the gold medal round beginning at 1:00pm.