Notre-Dame dominates on the diamond

The Collège Notre-Dame Alouettes boys slo-pitch team would love nothing more than to start a tradition on the diamond that could rival that of the school's girls.

The Als were clearly the class of the field Monday in Hanmer, cruising through round-robin play undefeated and easily disposing of the defending champion Sacré-Coeur Griffons (16-4) in semifinal action, before thumping the Lockerby Vikings 18-4 in taking the SDSSAA banner.

As many are aware, the Notre-Dame dominance in girls slo-pitch has been staggering, with the French Catholic school capturing 12 of the past 14 titles that have been up for grabs.

For the young men at Notre-Dame, this represented their first A championship since the event was officially initiated back in 2008 thanks to the legwork of Bishop Carter physical education teacher, Jean-Gilles Larocque.

The reins of the tournament have now been passed on to the staff at École Secondaire Champlain, with the 2013 competition attracting a total of 16 teams, including squads from École Secondaire Hanmer and Franco-Ouest, both schools numbering roughly 100 or less in total student population.

As for Notre-Dame, the team led by head coach Julie Leger-Dimaio was equally impressive on both offence and defence.

In the course of their back-to-back wins over Sacré-Coeur and Lockerby, the Alouettes were able to hold their opponents scoreless in eight of the 14 innings they played, never surrendering more than two runs in a single inning.

By contrast, Notre-Dame scored early and often in both games, building up leads of 12-2 and 11-2 after four innings of play against the Griffons and Vikings respectively. In fact, Leger-Dimaio noted that her group might have lost just a single inning outright through the entire six-game competition.

Bringing together a mix of ball players and athletes, the Notre-Dame side merged far better than most. Though shortstop Kyle Lapierre is more prominently known as a national calibre trampolinist, it's not as though he is unfamiliar when stepping on to local ball diamonds.

“I've actually been playing since I was really little,” he said. “Baseball was my first sport.”

With the success that the Notre-Dame girls have enjoyed over the years, it is not unusual to see a very confident girls Alouettes squad enter the SDSSAA tournament.
The boys, by contrast, were much more guarded.

“We knew we were OK, but coming in, we had no expectations, because in the past, we had never won,” said Lapierre.

As for the unrivalled offensive production, the well-spoken teenager noted that it was part good planning, part good fortune for he and his teammates.

“Some of the baseball players knew to try and hit the holes, but with some of the football players, we just kind of got lucky,” said Lapierre.

“They were good enough to hit the ball and not try and hit it over the fence. They hit it hard and straight and guys were missing them.”

The 2013 roster for the championship winning Collège Notre-Dame team included Ryley Bene, Mika David, Renel Guénette, Daniel Lamoureux, Kyle Lapierre, Christian Larivière, Kevin Lavoie, Patrick Lemieux, Nicholas Martin, Jordan Ouellette, Alain Roy, Mason Watt and head coach Julie Leger-Dimaio.

The Bishop Carter Gators took home the consolation crown with an 11-6 win over the St. Benedict Bears.

Lockerby had advanced to the A final with a come-from-behind 16-12 win over the St. Charles College Cardinals.