HAMILTON – The best baseball players in Ontario University Athletics (OUA) will be on display at the Rogers Centre on Sunday, May 30 as the 2009 champion Western Mustangs take on the OUA all-stars in the fourth annual OUA Baseball All-Star Showcase.
The Mustangs dominated OUA competition last autumn with a 13-5 regular season record an a 4-0 mark in the playoffs, sweeping the Toronto Varsity Blues and Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks in a pair of best-of-three series to claim the Jason Guindon Memorial Cup for the fourth time in five seasons.
Pitching is a definite strength of the Mustangs, as seen in the 2009 OUA championship series against the Golden Hawks. Western allowed just one run over 19 innings, and were led by the strong starting pitching of Jordan Townshend (London, Ont.) and Andrew Bergman (Pickering, Ont.). Townshend struck out 15 in Game 1 of the series, while Bergman notched five Ks in Game 2. Both had ERAs under two during the regular season and playoffs.
The Western offence is led by outfielder Andrew Thomson (Brampton, Ont.) and second baseman Bruce Craine (Whitby, Ont.). Both along with Townshend were named OUA all-stars in 2009.
The OUA all-star team will be comprised of student-athletes from the other six schools that complete on the OUA circuit, including Laurier, Toronto, Brock, Guelph, McMaster and Waterloo. OUA KR3 Custom Bats most valuable hitter Mike Walker (Guelph, Ont.) of the Brock Badgers headlines the all-star offence. The outfielder had one of the best seasons at the plate in OUA history, batting .468 with an on-base percentage of .620. He also had a slugging percentage of .580. Walker also scored 12 times, and drove in 10 during the 2009 regular season.
The all-star team will also have a strong mound presence, led by Toronto Varsity Blues pitcher Tyler Wilson (Kitchener, Ont.). The 2009 OUA most valuable pitcher had a 1.79 ERA over 45 1/3 innings, striking out 20 during the regular season. The reigning rookie of the year Andrew Greenberg (Richmond Hill, Ont.) of Laurier had a 2.23 ERA over 31 2/3 innings, striking out 12 in seven appearances.
The OUA Baseball All-Star Showcase will take place following the Toronto Blue Jays game against the Baltimore Orioles which begins at 1:07 p.m. Fans can enter Rogers Centre through Gate 8 free of charge following the Blue Jays game (approximately 5 p.m.), or purchase tickets to both by visiting bluejays.com.
The OUA All-Star Showcase is made possible with the help of KR3, Wilson, Pizza Pizza and the Blue Jays.
