The Windsor Stars captured their second straight Ontario Men's AAA Elimination Tournament title yesterday at Cullen Field in Windsor. The Stars completed one of the most dominant runs in recent history as they defeated the Newmarket Hawks of the GTBL by a final score of 6-0. That win gave Windsor a perfect 6-0 record for the weekend. They were able to score 61 runs on offense while only giving up four runs defensively.

Going back into last year, what the Stars have been able to accomplish at the Elimination Tournament is nothing short of amazing. Combined over the course of the two years, they have put together a staggering 12-1 record against some of the best Men's AAA Baseball teams in the province. Add to that a Canadian Men's AAA Championship with a 5-3 win over a tough Dartmouth Mosseheads club in Sydney, Nova Scotia in 2021. They will be back in Red Deer this year looking to defend their title. 

In 2023, the Stars got their tournament off and going with a 14-0 win over the Erindale Cardinals from the COBA Major Baseball League. Veteran righty Jack Zimmerman drew the start for Windsor and collected the win in this game. Adam Lamoureaux took the loss for the Cardinals. With the win, the Stars then matched up against the Ajax Spartans Friday night at Cullen Field. They once again had their offense on full display as they won this game by a 12-0 score. Noah Richardson was the beneficary of all the runs in this game grabbing the win on the mound. Brad Binns took the loss for Ajax. 

With a 2-0 record, Windsor ventured into Day 2 of the tournament and an afternoon match-up against the Leaside Leafs of the GTBL who were also 2-0 after Friday. It was a new day but the bats didn't cool down any for the Stars as they belted out 15 hits in a 13-2 win over the Leafs. Kimani Bailey collected the win for Windsor in this game while veteran Leafs hurler Jorge Frugoni took the loss. The win pushed the Stars record to 3-0 and gave them a bye through the evening into Sunday morning. 

Day 3 saw the Windsor kick off their day against the Sarnia Brigade of the SWSBL. This was a re-match of the provincial final from last year as well as the Vaughan Tournament final from this season which Windsor won by a score of 9-4. This was another tightly contested game with some great action. The Stars managed to push across a few runs late and pulled out a 6-2 win in this game. Josh Shepley went the distance for Windsor grabbing the win while Nick George was the hard luck loser for Sarnia. 

With the win the Stars were now 4-0 and grabbed a bye through the Final 5 on Sunday afternoon. The Stars were to play their next game at 6:30 that night but a rain storm that sewpt through the Windsor area wiped out all the action for the rest of the evening. The Newmarket/East York game made it into the 5th inning before it was also wiped out by rain. 

Championship Monday started off with the Stars grabbing a re-match against the Sarnia Briagde with the winner to face Newmarket in the next game. The Stars held a slight edge in this game early but stepped on the gas as the game went on as they took this game by a score of 10-0 running their reocrd to 5-0 on the torunament. Noah Pickering started and picked up the win in this game with veteran southpaw Dane Little pitching the last inning in relief. 

This set up the championship final where the Stars would meet the Newmarket Hawks with WIndsor needing to be defeated twice. The Stars would open the scoring in this game as they plated a pair of runs in the 3rd inning for an early 2-0 lead. They kept the pressure on next inning as they scored four more runs for a 6-0 lead. That would be all of the help starting pitcher Chris Renaud would need as he cruised to the win firing a 3-hit complete game. Dan Lehmkuhl took the tough loss for the Hawks.

A big shout out to Matt Richard and the whole Newmarket Hawks squad on a great showing in Windsor this past weekend. After a tough loss to the Windsor Athletics in their opening round game 11-7, the Hawks rattled off four straight wins over Tecumseh, Windsor A's, Erindale and East York before bowing out to Windsor in the final. Awesome job by the club and wishing them the best of luck in their GTBL playoffs.

A big congratulations goes to Ron Smith and the whole Windsor Stars organization on another impressive run through the Ontario Men's AAA Championships. The team never once trailed in this year's edition of the provincials and as impreesive as their offense was (61 runs scored) allowing four runs in six games might be one of the more impressive stats I have seen at the Elims in a long time. They are the first repeat winner of the this tournament since the Tecumseh Thunder won five in a row from 2014-18. 

The Stars will now move onto the Canadian Men's AAA Baseball Championships in Red Deer, Alberta from August 24th - 27th. They will face the host Red Deer Riggers, Nova Scotia (Kentville Wildcats), Quebec (Quebec All-Stars) and Newfoundland (Conception Bay Raiders) in the round robin. The quarter-finals run saturday night with the semi-finals and medal games running all day Sunday. Tournament scheudle, results and live stream info can be found here: https://baseball.ca/?fd=champ&pg=schedule&evt=seniormen

Lastly, we would like to give a huge thank you Ron Smith & Bernie Soulliere (Windsor), Jamie Kell (Tecumseh) as well as the crews that worked at Amherstburg and Woodslee for their help in making this another successful Elimination tournament weekend. It is the work of great volunteers like yourself that makes this tournament run smoothly for everyone involved. Thank you to all of the teams and fans for following along with our coverage as well. All of the kind messages and notes throughout the weekend were greatly appreciated.