Halifax sweeps 'Cats to claim NSSBL crown

BY JOHN DECOSTE

jdecoste@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

The Kentville Wildcats gave it their best shot, but the Halifax Pelham Canadians had momentum on their side in the Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League final.

The Canadians completed a four-game sweep of the Wildcats with a 1-0 victory Wednesday in Kentville. Barrett Bellefontaine threw a complete-game one-hit shutout for the win, giving Halifax its first NSSBL title since 1992.

Kevin Nichols was almost as good for the Wildcats, allowing a single run on an Adam Lucas sacrifice fly in the eighth inning and just five hits over eight innings.

On this night, though, Bellefontaine, the league’s top left-handed pitcher who had also won game one of the series, made sure that was enough. Rob Shepherd had Kentville’s only hit, while Mark Pelham led Halifax’s five-hit offense with a pair of singles.

The win was the eighth in a row for Halifax in a remarkable playoff run that saw the Canadians come back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Truro 4-3 in the semi-finals then sweep the Wildcats in a final that was much closer than the final margin would suggest.

Following a 6-1 Halifax win in the opening game, the final three games of the series were all decided by one run, including a 5-4 game two victory that took 15 innings to decide.

‘Hats off to Halifax,’ says Lockhart

“It’s hard to beat that kind of momentum,” Mike Lockhart said Thursday. “Hats off to Halifax. They got good pitching and timely hitting and didn’t make any mistakes.”

As for the Wildcats, they didn’t play badly, but their bats went cold. “We had the bases loaded in the eighth inning (on Wednesday),” Lockhart said, “but we couldn’t score. It was the same pretty much the whole series.”

The Wildcats were pushed to the brink of elimination with a 3-2 loss in game three Tuesday in Halifax.

Again, the game featured great pitching on both sides. Jeff Bishop allowed three runs on seven hits in a complete-game performance while Andrew MacIntosh surrendered three hits and two runs in seven-and-a-third innings for Halifax.

Perry Deveau entered the game with runners on second and third and none out in the bottom of the ninth and struck out Luke Smith for the first out.

After an intentional walk to Mike Lockhart to load the bases, Deveau got Nick Hill to pop out before striking out Shepherd to end the game.

Benjamin, the ’Cats’ top hitter all season, had a double and two singles. Ryan Brothers singled and drove in a run and Hill also singled to account for Kentville’s five hits.

Pelham and Ryan Veinot each had two singles and one RBI for Halifax. Jay Turple added a single and one RBI and Adam Lucas chipped in a double.

‘Games we could have won’: Mosher

Speaking Thursday morning, player-assistant coach Ian Mosher said, “they were all games we’ll look back on as games we could have won. We were probably two or three plays away from leading the series 3-1 instead of losing 4-0.”

At the same time, he said, Halifax “are worthy champions. They outplayed us, though not by much, in every aspect of the game. Our pitchers were amazing, but theirs were better. We had more overall experience, but they matched us, pitch for pitch.”

Mosher added he will remember this season for a lot of reasons, most of them positive, and said the experience of 2008 “has taught me a lot. There has been a lot of negativity about the overall decline in popularity of baseball as a sport.

“When I see how good the baseball was in this year’s playoffs and how enthusiastic the players and the fans were at the games, it gives me hope for the future. I’m both enthused and inspired that the game is in good hands and will continue to survive.”

He is pleased and encouraged at the emergence of young Wildcats’ players like Kevin Benjamin, Rob Shepherd, Ryan Pearl, Ryan Brothers, Nick Hill (to name just a few) as budding NSSBL stars with the potential to lead Kentville to future championships.

“We struggled in the regular season, especially at the end, but even if we had lost four straight to Dartmouth, the season still wouldn’t have been a failure because of the development of all these young players who are our future. We didn’t win in the end, but overall it has been a positive experience, not a negative experience at all.”