Hantsport wins NSIBL championship, intermediate AAA provincials

BY JOHN DECOSTE

Kings County Register

It doesn’t seem to matter how well they’ve done all season, the Hantsport Shamrocks always show up to play at playoff time.

The Shamrocks won their fourth consecutive Nova Scotia Intermediate Baseball League championship Aug. 24 in Bridgewater: the hard way, playing three games on the final day of the tournament and winning them all.

Hantsport, which finished a close third in the regular season standings with a 20-8 record (Bridgewater was at 21-7, Pictou County at 18-7), opened the league championship tournament with a 4-3 loss to Pictou County.

The Shamrocks edged Windsor 6-5 in their second game to improve to 1-1, then blanked Pictou County 11-0 to advance to the league championship against Bridgewater which had advanced directly to the final with a 2-0 record.

Hantsport had to defeat Bridgewater twice to claim the championship - and did just that, winning the first game 4-1 and the second 4-0.

The following weekend, Hantsport captured the provincial intermediate AAA championship, their ninth in the past 13 years, along with three Atlantic titles and nine league championships.

The Shamrocks won provincials with a 9-1 victory, again over Bridgewater, in the championship game. Veteran Joey Gaudet was the winning pitcher. Offensively, Derek Hart had a double and two singles and Deron Moores three singles.

Hantsport had advanced to the provincial final with a 5-2 win over Halifax. Jeff Bishop was the winning pitcher, and Evan Fletcher led the offense with three singles.

During the league tournament, the 2008 NSIBL awards were handed out, with the Shamrocks’ Jeff Bishop co-winner of the league’s Top Pitcher award. Bishop was among the league leaders in innings pitched (42 2/3), wins (6), ERA (1.15) and strikeouts (42).

Hantsport’s Deron Moores finished third in the league in batting with a .429 average. Besides Bishop and Moores, other Shamrocks among the 2008 league leaders were Mike King, Ross Coburn, Derek Hart and Doug Coldwell.