After defeating Queen's University for bronze, the Brock Badgers baseball team returned home with its first provincial medal in eight seasons.
Off the back of starting pitcher Jack Tiessen, the Badgers defeated the Queen's Gaels 9-5 in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) bronze medal game on Saturday, October 12 at the Ajax Sportsplex in Ajax.
After dropping their semifinal contest in heartbreaking fashion to Waterloo, the Badgers responded with a complete performance.
"We wanted to finish the season with a medal, and especially, for our seniors, to finish off with a good game," said Brock pitching coach Fabio Del Rio. "We're happy for our seniors, Ashton Feijo, Cole Carpenter and Ethan Pasco, who finished with either hits or intentional walks in their last at-bats which is pretty cool."
The Badgers scored in four of their six innings at bat as they controlled the momentum of the seven-inning game from start to finish.
On the mound, Tiessen had the strongest performance of his young career, pitching all seven innings and striking out eight hitters. The Leamington, Ontario native threw an astounding 142 pitches in the contest as he gave up eight hits and five earned runs.
"He battled and scrapped and cares about doing it for the team," Del Rio said. "We're proud of him and the progress he made since last year and those are the guys we want to coach for — players who want to work hard and get better."
A balanced showing from the Brock bats helped propel the Badgers to the win as they had three players, Cole Carpenter, Reid Lunney, and Flynn Matheson, notch two RBIs. Tyson Gomm, a second-year catcher, led all hitters with three hits, all coming from singles.
"I'm really encouraged about the future of our team. Those three seniors are important guys, but our pitching staff is 90% first and second-year players," Del Rio said. "Our hitting lineup is strong and got great experience this year. We got over a big hump and shown that we can play with anybody but also shows some of the work we have to do."
