{"id":33032,"date":"2023-05-12T00:09:44","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T04:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=33032"},"modified":"2023-05-18T20:39:57","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T00:39:57","slug":"hometown-hero-fionn-keon-walks-off-the-ontario-nationals-in-titans-home-opener-victory-at-sac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/hometown-hero-fionn-keon-walks-off-the-ontario-nationals-in-titans-home-opener-victory-at-sac\/","title":{"rendered":"Hometown hero Fionn Keon walks off the Ontario Nationals in Titans\u2019 home opener victory at SAC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora resident Fionn Keon drove in the game-winning run as the 17U Titans Baseball Club walked off the Ontario Nationals 3-2 at Saint Andrew\u2019s College on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a stunning end to the first game of the 2023 season for the Titans who compete in the CPBL, the top youth baseball league in the province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Titans\u2019 winning rally was, indeed, a dramatic one. They entered the bottom of the seventh inning down 2-1 to the Nationals, but Aurora resident and Titans DH Nate Windle was hit by a pitch to get the tying run on base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Titans\u2019 shortstop Jordan Sfyndillis cued the comeback by driving a ringing double off the right-centre field wall to score Windle and tie the game 2-2. Sfyndillis\u2019s clutch two-bagger was his second hit of the afternoon and his gutsy advance to third base set the stage for Keon\u2019s game-ending heroics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keon, the Titans\u2019 centerfielder and a Grade 12 student at SAC, used his home field knowledge to his advantage and chopped a hard shot at the Nationals\u2019 shortstop whose throw home was too late to nab the streaking Sfyndillis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winning run created a convulsive celebration by the Orange, White, and Blue-clad Titans on the SAC infield. The game-winning RBI by Keon made a winner of reliever Graham Marshall who went two innings in relief, striking out 5 and issuing only 1 walk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acting Titans\u2019 17U Head Coach Denis Bailey couldn\u2019t have been happier with the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was exhilarating. I felt great for the team, especially since they struggled a bit in 2022. There isn\u2019t a better feeling in sports than a walk-off win in baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The veteran skipper, who was an NCAA Division 1 catcher in his playing days, offered insights into his pitchers\u2019 performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKai Hernandez recovered from a rough start to keep us in the game today and Graham Marshall had a great game in his debut for the Titans\u2014throwing two solid innings.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 6\u20195\u201d Hernandez bounced back from some early control problems and provided the Titans with a quality start. He struck out ten Nationals, walked two in the early innings, and surrendered just one earned run over five innings of work in the seven-inning CPBL game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nationals\u2014an original CPBL franchise that plays out of St. Mary\u2019s and uses the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame\u2019s main diamond as their home field \u2013 scored first in the third inning to take a 2-0 lead. The Titans pulled to within one in the fifth inning when Aurora resident Owen Norris crossed the plate to narrow the Nationals\u2019 lead to 2-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Bailey praised the play of Norris, second baseman Tyler Pridham, and the end-of-game heroics of Windle, Sfyndillis, and Keon, but also noted that \u201cIt was a collective win. It was the ultimate team win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey was guest-coaching for Titans\u2019 17U Head Coach Eddie McKiernan whose wife, Natalee, gave birth to their first daughter, Cali, on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKiernan, a former California High School Athlete of the Year and Major League pitching prospect with the Los Angeles Angels, credited his team\u2019s aggression and Coach Bailey\u2019s gutsy calls at third for the victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were very aggressive on the base paths and forced the other team to play catch. It was the first day outside for everyone. Coach Bailey knew the percentages were in our favor this early in the year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKiernan, who also serves as the Titans\u2019 Director of Player Development and the organization\u2019s Pitching Coordinator, was pleased with his hurlers\u2019 efforts versus the Nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKai pitched amazing and Graham Marshall filled up the strike zone.  They had 15 strikeouts in seven innings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With his daughter\u2019s birth in mind and his team\u2019s \u2018walk-off\u2019 in the win column, Coach McKiernan used his penchant for understatement to note that, \u201cIt was a good way to start the season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Titans, a third-year \u201cexpansion franchise\u201d in the Canadian Premier Baseball League, have a team in each of the league\u2019s 14U, 15U, 16U, 17U, and 18U divisions and joined the best youth baseball loop in Ontario in 2021 after establishing the organization in the Fergie Jenkins Showcase League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CPBL is the baseball equivalent to the OHL with 11 elite franchises spread across the province from Windsor to London to the GTHA to Ottawa. More than 85 per cent of the League\u2019s players commit to US College scholarships and many CPBL players are drafted by MLB teams every summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Titans have signed 15 players from their Class of 2023 to US College scholarships and play their weekend doubleheader home games at SAC in Aurora and Whipper Watson Park in Newmarket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their year-round baseball facility is The True North Fieldhouse on 220 Pony Drive in Newmarket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 18U Titans\u2019 home opener versus the Toronto Mets was rained out on Sunday afternoon at SAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inclement weather also washed out and postponed Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas\u2019 Opening Day pitch to kick off the 18U Titans\u2019 2023 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Opening Day Ceremony will be made up in June and Mayor Mrakas\u2019 darting, two-seam fastball will be on display at SAC to kick off a midseason doubleheader. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jim Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora resident Fionn Keon drove in the game-winning run as the 17U Titans Baseball Club walked off the Ontario Nationals 3-2 at Saint Andrew\u2019s College on Saturday afternoon. It was a stunning end to the first game of the 2023 season for the Titans who compete in the CPBL, the top youth baseball league in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/2023-05-12-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8AM","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 16:31:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}