Sports -
Brandon Reardon has enjoyed the thrill of winning provincial championships.
But as good as they were, they pale in comparison to the national medal which was draped around his neck last Monday in Paradise.
"It's one of the greatest feelings I've had in my life," said the St. Anthony resident. "There's nothing like winning a national title."
Reardon and his teammates on Maurice's Service Center (MSC) knew they had the talent and the drive to give a good account of themselves at the Slo-Pitch National 'E' division championships in St. John's July 31-Aug. 3, but they may even have surprised themselves when they defeated a determined team from Ontario, the Mudhens, in the final to claim the coveted plaque.
Teammate Kirb Simmonds noted it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience just to take to the field of a national tournament.
"We may never get to do this again, so it means a lot to the guys and everyone who has been supporting us and behind us to win this thing."
Maurice's Service Center played a total of eight games in the field of 19 teams and lost just once - to the same Mudhens they beat in the final.
MSC earned the right to compete in the nationals by virtue of their playoff finish in last year's provincials. The team opened the tournament with a victory over an Ontario team, Bert's Plumbing. The bats died in the second game and MSC dropped an 8-6 decision to the Mudhens.
A Nova Scotia team, the Steelpro Snipers, lost to MSC in game three. In the next game, MSC took on the Booze Boys, a team made up of players from the St. John's-Bonavista areas. It was their first game on a big field and facing Mike Hogan, regarded as one of the best hitters in the province. The win over their provincial rivals secured MSC a fourth place finish in their division.
In the opening playoff game, MSC edged Maddog Dooley's of Ontario. The outcome of the second playoff game against Quebec may have provided the spark that Reardon says the team needed at that point.
"We were down by three, 9-6, in the bottom of the 6th inning. That's when Doff (Ryan Pittman) hit a grand slam to put us up 10-9, but they scored six on us to go up 15-10 in the top half of the seventh," he explains.
"What happened is that we scored six runs on one out to win 16-15 in the seventh," he remarks. "When we won that one, we had a thought that this might be our tournament."
In game six, MSC exacted some revenge on the earlier loss to the Mudhens by beating their foes 16-11. The game determined which team would advance to the final.
"If we got the bats going, we knew we could beat them," Reardon notes. "We came out killing the ball. We were up by 10 runs going into the bottom. Scott Coish made the third out by diving to catch the ball."
Heading into the tournament, there were concerns that MSC might have difficulty adjusting to the smaller fields they were assigned to play.
"We had to adjust our play, level off the swing and take a bit off and that worked for us," Reardon says. "I think we had something like 30 hits in the final game."
There was also some worry when Andrew Roberts was forced to miss the championship game because he had to write an exam for one of his university courses. However, Shawn Roberts filled in and the team didn't miss a beat in its march to the title.
Ryan Pittman was named the team's most valuable player and copped the honour as the tournament's most valuable player as well.
The team says it's grateful to support from team sponsor, Maurice Simmonds, and the help it received from Chris Pittman of Labatt's and the St. Anthony Recreation Advisory Committee.
For winning the national title, MSC received gold medallions, caps and team jackets.
