The SDSSAA baseball scene played out as everyone expected, with the St Charles College Cardinals winning comfortably over the Confederation Chargers in the final.

In this case, the rich just keep getting richer as Sudbury Voyageurs’ pitcher Braiden Paul transferred from Espanola to SCC to finish out his secondary schooling and proceeded to strike out the first ten batters he faced in the final, eventually touched for a double from former rep teammate Owen Perron.

Still, the consummate baseball man that he is, Cardinals manager Jean-Gilles Larocque was more pleased with the overall level of ball being played than anything specifically that his own team did in laying claim to a fifth straight city title.

“You look at Lockerby and you could be facing Callum Baron, a really good left-handed pitcher – and you’re in a game,” said Larocque. “Bishop Carter did a really good job this year, up 2-0 before Confederation scored three in the bottom of the seventh in the semi-final. It was nice seeing some really competitive baseball being played.”

While the NOSSA and OFSAA playdowns do not occur in baseball until the spring, there is little doubt that this is the end goal for the Cards, with Larocque and his staff focused on ensuring their squad of almost exclusively PBLO talent keeps their eyes on the prize through an abbreviated fall campaign.

“You don’t want to put the horse before the cart,” said Larocque. “If you can’t take care of your own backyard, nothing else really matters. We try and find ways to keep them engaged, finding games within the games.”

Safe to say that it really helps when you have the buy-in of all of the key seniors.

“The hardest thing is staying engaged – the games tend to be a little longer – but as seniors, it’s important that we do a great job of keeping the younger players engaged,” said starting shortstop Devan Madore.

“Even the players that are not playing are an important part of the team. We all try and be at the fence in the dugout, up encouraging our teammates.”

And lest the likes of Madore forget how it feels to be on the opposite side of these matchups, the talented 17 year-old was anointed as starting quarterback of the Cardinals’ senior football team in week two, despite not ever having played a single down before, learning on the fly for a team that went 1-4 this fall.

“That first week (of the season), I watched the game,” said Madore. “On Monday, I asked the coach if I could come out and see what it’s like. I threw about a dozen balls and the coach asked if I would like to start (at quarterback) that Friday.”

Thankfully, in good times and in bad, the notion of simply being part of a team can help make every sporting experience that much more memorable. “I tried not to think about the fact that I do have a career in another sport and I’m not really looking at getting injured here,” said Madore.

“But I had to do it, to stick in there for the people beside me. They trust me enough to allow me to be on the field with them. I have an offensive line blocking for me and they don’t really know who I am prior to this week. I just got it in my head that I am going to trust them because they were going to trust me.”

That mindset likely exists at other schools as well – but talk to the St Charles alumnus and they wear it as a badge of honour. “You just can’t replace the tradition here,” said Larocque. “The way that things are done and have always been done.”

“There is a certain culture that has been built at St Charles,” added Madore. “There is a certain culture that we want to uphold in our community.”

It is part of the messaging to a group of talented new baseball kids who used the fall ball season to get acclimated to the high-school game.

"Owen Lamothe stepped in as a grade nine; Brett Rienguette in grade nine hit the ball hard and played well defensively," said Larocque. "Ethan Thompson has been really versatile. And Joe Gouchie, a hockey goalie, played really well defensively."

Rounding out the Cardinals roster are William Arsenault, Brody Mabbott, Gabriel Larocque, Hudson Fletcher, Nicolas Signorile, Carter Baron, Alex Marshfield, Logan West, Colton Nowoselsky, Chris St Germain and Logan Vaillancourt.

Assisting Larocque on team staff duties were Darren Michelutti, Rob Zanatta, Braedan Gobbo, Craig Thompson and Jeff Nowoselsky.