The University of Toronto Varsity Blues baseball team delivered a 6-1 victory over the McMaster Marauders on Friday (Oct. 13) in Hamilton, securing their spot in the 2023 OUA Championship gold medal game.

In the OUA semifinal contest versus the championship host Marauders, Toronto received an outstanding performance from starting pitcher Kevin Angers. The veteran went 7.2 innings, racking up an impressive 11 strikeouts, while conceding just one earned run on seven hits and three walks.

Appearing in relief, Ethan Kwong added another two strikeouts to the Blues tally, finishing out the final 1.1 innings by shutting down the Marauders offence.

Meanwhile, the Blues offence manufactured runs throughout the nine inning contest utilizing aggressive base running and patience at the plate. In addition to five drawn walks, U of T stole five bases, led by three stolen bases from second-year speedster Sam Aslanowicz. The dynamic threat finished the game 2-for-4 with a walk, while crossing the plate for three of Toronto's six runs scored.

Driving in Aslanowicz was the duo of Niko Kekatos and Owen Taylor who provided the Blues with strong plate appearances at the top of the order. Kekatos conlcuded the semifinal game going 2-for-3, plus a walk, en route to three RBI, while Taylor converted his 2-for-4 day at the plate into one RBI and one run.

With the win, Toronto advance to their third consecutive OUA Championship final, taking second in 2022, while claiming the championship banner in 2021. The Blues will now be looking for their seventh provincial banner in program history dating back to 2001.

U of T will face the winner of the second semifinal, the Waterloo Warriors, for OUA gold tomorrow (Oct. 14) afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at Bernie Arbour Stadium in Hamilton. The championship final will also be streamed online via oua.tv.