{"id":12192,"date":"2019-08-15T01:37:42","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T04:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=12192"},"modified":"2019-08-15T01:37:42","modified_gmt":"2019-08-15T04:37:42","slug":"fall-rivers-golden-boys-gravel-cowan-still-on-cloud-nine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=12192","title":{"rendered":"Fall River\u2019s Golden boys: Gravel, Cowan still on Cloud Nine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"> <strong><em>Baseball N.S. defeats Ontario to capture historic first-ever Canada Cup<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>FALL RIVER: <\/strong>It was the strike heard across Canada, and especially loudly in Nova Scotia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With  two out and N.S. ahead of powerful Ontario 3-2 in the top of the  seventh at the Baseball Canada Cup in Regina on Aug. 11, Ethan MacLellan  of Kennetcook fired a heater past the Ontario batter for strike three,  sending his Bluenose U-17 teammates, including an LWF baseball alum,  streaming onto the field in wild exuberance at what had just happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nick\n Gravel, a shortstop, and Shane Cowan, who saw time at first and second \nbase during the tournament, were both key contributors to the team\u2019s \nhistory making gold medal victory. It\u2019s the first-ever time Baseball \nNova Scotia has won a Under-17 national championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And it turns out Gravel\u2019s run that made it 3-0 stands as the game winner for N.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt  won us the game now that I think of it,\u201d said Gravel, a Vauxhall  Academy prospect. \u201cIt\u2019s just crazy that my run was the winner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fall River\u2019s NS baseball gold medalists\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VY_M-b4Llq4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Both\n commended Ethan MacLellan for his fortitude in coming in with the bases\n full, and mowing down the three Ontario batters he faced all by the \nstrikeout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAt first I was nervous because they are team Ontario \nand had the bases loaded, and the heart of their order was up,\u201d said \nGravel. \u201cEthan just pounded the zone and shut them down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe told  me it was his first time ever coming out of the bullpen. He was lights  out,\u201d added Cowan. \u201cThat was the hardest I\u2019ve ever seen him throw. It  was fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the championship game, Duncan McLaughlin \nstruck out nine Ontario batters while surrendering one earned run before\n giving way to MacLellan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cowan and Gravel admitted the reality of\n their feat hasn\u2019t quite set in yet. They also were unaware of the \nmagnitude of the accomplishment until after the huddle following the \nwin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><strong>\u201cIt was just surreal,\u201d said Cowan of seeing the final out and  that they had won. \u201cI felt like I was in a dream when I ran out there  on the field.<\/strong><\/p><p><strong>\u201cWhen they started bringing the (championship) hats out, it was like we were in a movie.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Gravel was on the field at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was insane,\u201d he said. \u201cI just ran in to the huddle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Holding the gold medal as they\u2019re interviewed inside Tim Hortons in Fall River \u201cfeels great.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both\n were confident the way their pitchers were controlling the game, they \nwere coming away with nothing but gold. Even if they had lost, silver \nwould still have marked the teams best finish ever, so Ontario was under\n the gun. And couldn\u2019t come through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey (Ontario) were on their heels,\u201d said Gravel. \u201cI knew we were going to win. You just had that feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both are soaking it in, as are most of the players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis\n could be our only time winning it, and being able to tell our grandkids\n and have pour names attached to it is crazy,\u201d said Gravel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s an honour and really special to be part of history,\u201d added Cowan. \u201cWe get to say we were part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The support from back home has left both players phones blowing up with texts and notifications on Instagram and Snapchat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEveryone is super excited for us,\u201d said Cowan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/67778739_10156991477482107_6266368473253806080_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12196\"\/><figcaption>Shane Cowan with the trophy. (Submitted photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>They hope that their accomplishment will lay the foundation within the LWF Baseball Association for the younger kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\n was once like those kids looking up to players on our national team,\u201d \nsaid Cowan. \u201cI hope I can be a role model for those kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What was key for the championship win?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><strong>\u201cWe just played as team, and it all worked out in the end,\u201d said Gravel.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Baseball N.S. defeats Ontario to capture historic first-ever Canada Cup FALL RIVER: It was the strike heard across Canada, and especially loudly in Nova Scotia. With two out and N.S. ahead of powerful Ontario 3-2 in the top of the seventh at the Baseball Canada Cup in Regina on Aug. 11, Ethan MacLellan of Kennetcook [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12,21],"tags":[687,18,688,689,690,465,633,466,467],"class_list":["post-12192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","category-sports","tag-baseball-canada","tag-baseball-n-s","tag-canada-cup-championship","tag-historic-title","tag-kennetcook","tag-lwf-baseball","tag-nick-gravel","tag-shane-cowan","tag-tri-county-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}