Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
Ernestown Eagles pitchers were one out away from opening their season with a no-hitter over their cross county rival NDSS Golden Hawks before Dean Taylor ripped a solid base hit to the outfield.
That was the only hit the Eagles would allow as they picked up a solid 5-0 victory in Monday’s EOSSAA qualifying tournament held at Melrose Park in Shannonville.
The pre-season tournament was an opportunity for Kingston-area high school teams to get some game action on the diamond after the prolonged winter delayed the scheduled start of the KASSAA season.
Justin Candlish got the start for the Hawks and played the role of Houdini for his three innings, pitching his way out of several scoring opportunities. After allowing an unearned run in the first, he settled in for two more scoreless innings.
The Eagles loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the third but were unable to score thanks to a crafty pick-off throw from Hawks catcher Mike McInnes to catch a base runner at third.
After Candlish struck out the next batter, McInnes again picked off another runner at third, engaging in a run down.
Austin Dunham allowed one run in his inning, though he too left the bases loaded to close out the inning with two strikeouts.
The Eagles were able to put the game away in the fifth with a three run inning and eliminate the Hawks from the single-loss tournament.
“We’ve been practicing for a couple months, it’s good to finally get out in a game situation, test their skills they’ve been working on,” said Hawks head coach Daryl Sheffield. “Overall we’ve happy with the effort.”
He credited the team for escaping several tight scoring opportunities with limited damage over the first four innings.
“It was all teachable moments,” said Sheffield. “Half of the team haven’t played hardball. Most of them have some softball experience, but hardball’s a completely different sport.”
The Hawks will open their season next Tuesday against Frontenac at Kingston’s Woodbine.
On the soccer pitch the NDSS Golden Hawk junior boys soccer team ended their season on a bit of a high note. They closed out the regular season with a 3-3 draw against the Ernestown Eagles. The draw allowed them to earn their first point of the season. The junior girls soccer team fell 4-1 to Ernestown to close out their season and finish with an identical 0-7-1 record as the boys.