One senses that we may have just witnessed a "golden era" for St Charles College Cardinals baseball - in as much as one can define an era as a highly successful two-year stretch.

The Cards followed up their silver medal winning performance at the 2025 OFSAA Baseball Championships by earning bronze in 2026 - though all of the metrics will suggest that SCC were the second best high-school team in the province.

After running the table at the Eastern Qualifier one week earlier, the Cardinals had the misfortune of drawing the St Martin CSS Mustangs from Mississauga, a team loaded with talent (four Team Ontario + one Team Canada).

Despite missing a golden opportunity early to garner some momentum (bases loaded with nobody out = no runs), the Sudbury lads fought their way through a seven-inning battle, eventually falling by a final score of 10-2.

The gold medal game, by contrast, would last only three innings, with St Martin winning gold convincingly over St Anne's. Meanwhile, St Charles also needed only four innings to dispose of the Collingwood Collegiate Institute Owls 13-3.

Brett Rienguette closed off the festivities with a walk-off home run, Gabriel Larocque went 4/4 at the plate and showcased a highlight reel back pickoff at first and pitcher Will Burns earned the win on the mound as the Cardinals picked up their fourth victory by mercy.

"I still remember the days when we attended OFSAA and were mercy-ruled after two innings," noted coach Darren Michelutti, who shares the duties with a large and talented staff of Jean-Gilles Larocque, Rob Zanatta, Jeff Nowoselsky, Craig Thompson and Braedan Gobbo.

"J-G remembers when simply earning a win at the tournament was considered a major accomplishment," added Michelutti, who noted that baseball is one of the few team sports where high-schools in the province are not sub-divided based on student population.

(At just under 1,100 students, St Martin's is nearly double the size of SCC - grades nine to twelve.)

Beyond those already mentioned, the St Charles College roster also included: Christopher St Germain, Ethan Thompson, Cameron Roy, Brody Mabbott, Jayce Peters, Joshua St Germain, Brady Rajotte, Alex Marshfield, Callum Hopkins, Braiden Paul, Hudson Fletcher, Ryder Roy, Landon Creasey, Owen Lamothe, Nathan Omeljaniuk, Colton Nowoselsky and Caleb Larocque.