CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Brett Brittany singled home Eric Anderson as the Holland College Hurricanes scored six runs in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday to win the bronze medal at the Canadian National Baseball Championship.
The 8-7 walk-off victory over the Humber College Hawks is the Hurricanes’ second-best finish at nationals since the Holland College program was formed in 2014. The ’Canes finished second at the national championship in Fredericton, N.B., in 2015.
The Hurricanes went 2-0 in round-robin play at the six-team tournament in Toronto before losing 6-4 to Thomson Rivers University Wolfpack from Kamloops, B.C., in Friday’s semifinal.
Trailing 3-0 early, the Hurricanes responded in the second inning to take a 4-3 lead. The Wolfpack plated three runs in the top of the seventh to take a 6-4 lead they would not relinquish.
In the bronze medal game, the Hurricanes found themselves behind early, giving up two runs in the first inning. Things got worse as the Hawks added four runs in the third and another in the fifth to take a 7-1 lead.
The ’Canes scratched one back in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit to five.
With the bronze medal on the line in the seventh inning, Holland College received RBI singles from Julian MacDonald and Riley Gallant before Curtis McGregor singled in two more runs to cut the lead to one.
Tyson McInnis singled to score Luke Robison with the tying run and set up Brittany, a Fredericton, N.B., native who played for the Charlottetown Gaudet’s Auto Body Islanders this summer, for the late-game heroics.
The Durham Lords defeated the Wolfpack 2-1 in extra innings to win the championship game.
McInnis a third baseman from Peakes and right-fielder Chase Brown of Tennecape, N.S., were named to the all-star team. The Hurricanes went 14-2 during the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball Association regular season before going 1-2 at the Atlantic championships.
