McMaster baseball wins OUA West Regional qualifier
The McMaster baseball team won this year's regional qualifiers, giving them the chance to compete for the OUA Championship title
McMaster University’s men's baseball team had a rocky start to the fall season. The team had four losses before their first win of the season against the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees on Sept. 16.
As the season has progressed, it seems as though the Marauders were able to their team together. After their first win against Ottawa, the team brought in more wins and any losses tended to be closer in score.
The team picked up big victories against Waterloo University and Queen's University. Waterloo beat the Marauders in their first meeting of the season, but the Marauders proved themselves in winning the second meeting. With Queen’s being last year’s Ontario University Athletics champions, a win against the team proved the Marauder’s high calibre of play. Key players stepped up, such as Matt Underwood, who batted a great game against the Ottawa Gee-Gees and gave the team a great offensive opportunity.
After the regular season concluded on Oct. 1, the Marauders finished with a record of seven wins and nine losses. The team hosted the OUA West Regional Qualifiers at Bernie Arbour Memorial Stadium on Oct. 6 and 7.
McMaster competed against the Brock University Badgers to start the weekend and narrowly lost with a score of 10-12. The second game of the competition saw the Marauders beat University of Guelph to automatically place the team into the competition’s finals. They took on the Badgers for a second time in the finals, finding a 8-2 win on route to being crowned OUA West champions.
The Marauders’ win sent the team through to the OUA championship semifinals. They took on the University of Toronto Varsity Blues on Oct. 13, but unfortunately, the Marauders could not find the win ending the game with a score of 1-6.
The team will compete for the OUA Championship bronze medal on Oct. 14. They will play against Carleton University, with the Marauders likely hoping to bring home one last piece of hardware for the season.