(The Sacred Heart High School baseball team finished out their season on June 10th. The team is made up of players from across Ottawa and is coached by SHHS principal Ryan Larose and teachers Phil Beingessner and Ryan McCloskey. Photos: Jack Bayley)
This past week the Sacred Heart High School baseball team’s season ended. The team finished off the season with a 3-3 record in the Tier 1 division play. This was good enough to secure them the last spot in the playoffs. The team coached by principal Mr. Larose and teachers Mr. Beingessner and Mr. McCloskey was comprised of players from grades 9-12. The team was made up of players from all different organizations across the city such as the Ottawa Nepean Canadians, Ottawa Patriots, and the Kanata Cubs.
The first playoff game was a bout against St. Paul High School. The team was severely undermanned for this game only having 9 players. This meant that the bench was completely empty and everyone would have to do their part for a chance to move on. Solid pitching and great offense from players Scott Melvin, Cameron Goldie, and Zach Cloutier led to the team taking the game 6-2. The next playoff game was against St. FX High School. The team had regained its depth and it showed as the team cruised to a 7-3 win. The offense throughout the season had been pretty slow but once playoffs arrived, the team turned it on outsourcing opponents by large margins in both games.
The team was moving on to the semi-finals where they would face St. Mother Theresa. All four teams that made the semi-finals ended up all being from the same division showing how great high school baseball had been this year in the west end. Mother Theresa came out swinging and crushed some pitches into the outfield with two even going to the wall. They then started a pitcher who was throwing great and who quieted the Sacred bats quickly. Although the team put up a small comeback at the end of the game it was not enough to dig themselves out of the hole they had put themselves in. The game finished 14-4 for St. Mother Theresa eliminating Sacred Heart and ending their season.
Even though the season ended on a low note it was still a success. Last year the SHHS team went 1-6 missing the playoffs so to have the team jump to the semi-finals the very next year is impressive. Being a member of the team myself, I would say that the season was a lot of fun and it was great to play against some of the best players from across the city.
Hopefully next year there will be an article like this talking about how Sacred Heart has won it all!
