The Sarnia Braves captured the Men's AAA Elimination Championship Monday evening in Windsor. The win, the team's 3rd ever provincial crown and 1st title since 1994, books their ticket to the Canadians Men's Baseball Championships which will be held in Miramichi, New Brunswick on August 22nd - 25th.

The Braves had a tough run this year as they beat some of the best teams in the province to enter Monday. They led off their tournament with a tough 7-4 win over the Etobicoke Rangers which gave them a bye into the 3rd round on Saturday morning. They then defeated the host Windsor Stars 5-3 and league mates the Strathroy Royals 7-6 on Saturday to remain undefeated.

Sunday, Sarnia then defeated the Thornhill Reds by a score of 7-4 to move to 4-0 on the tournament and followed that up with a 6-1 win over the Brampton Royals in the "Final 5" to advance to Monday undefeated and with a bye through Round 7.

In game one, the Thornhill Reds rode the arm of Chadwick Cameron as he held down a strong Stars team defeating them 1-0. This set-up the final between Thornhill and Sarnia with the Braves needing to be defeated twice. In game one, Sarnia added two runs late to go head 3-2 heading to the bottom of the 7th inning.

After a great six innings from Wade Babula, Mike Damchuk entered to try and nail down the save. The Reds loaded the bases though and a clutch 2-out hit from Thornhill OF Dan Apostoli pushed across two runs and giving Sarnia their first loss of the tournament 4-3.

In game two, it was an absolute pitchers duel as Mike Damchuk returned to the mound for Sarnia while Mack Major drew the starting nod for Thornhill. Both pitchers were brilliant through six innings as neither allowed a run with Damchuk scattering four Reds hits while Major had faced one over the minimum.

Damchuk shut down the Reds in the 7th inning and then the Braves got something rolling as they used a hit and an error to get a couple of runners on base. The runners advanced to 2nd and 3rd with one out. Thornhill then intentionally walked the bases loaded and got Vince Caschera to ground out and cut the run down at the plate.

Keegan Brandon was the next batter and on the first pitch that he saw the pitch handcuffed the catcher and the runner scored from 1st base when the ball squirted to the backstop giving Sarnia a 1-0 walk off win and the Ontario Men's AAA Elimination title.

Congratulations to Head Coach James Grant, the team and the whole city of Sarnia on their championship this year. Best of luck as they represent Ontario at the Canadians. Also, congrats to Nolan Revin and the Thornhill Reds Baseball Club on their great run through the tournament this year.

Also, big thank you to Ron Smith and the Windsor Stars organization, John Weber and the Windsor Athletics organization and Jamie Kell and the Tecumseh Thunder organization as well as the crew out in Woodslee on being such great hosts and providing great playing fields throughout the tournament.