St. Paul’s own Shawn Germain recently suited up with Team Canada as a member of the men’s national slo-pitch team for the fifth annual Men’s Slo-Pitch Border Battle on July 11 in Oklahoma City, Okla.
Germain is no stranger to competition, having played AAA baseball and Junior A hockey as a teen and spending five years as a defenceman in the East Coast Hockey League in his 20s, but last Thursday was the first time the 30-year-old has put on the colours of his country and squared off against his neighbours to the south. To add to the grandeur, the game was shown on ESPN in the United States on Saturday evening, and TSN 2 on Sunday.
While Canada lost the Border Battle, 25-10, by mercy rule in the bottom of the fifth inning, Germain said he was happy with the way they performed, and even happier to wear the maple leaf.
“It was pretty cool to put on the maple leaf and represent your country on that kind of scale. I was never named to a Canada hockey team or anything like that. It’s a little bit different when you’re going up against the competition in hockey especially being from this country,” he said. “When you look at the score like that, it can be a little bit deceiving but it was a good game for the first few innings, we just didn’t get our sticks going like we needed.”
Germain managed a great performance with the Alberta Oilmen at the 2012 Canadian nationals in London, Ont. which he said helped him get noticed by Team Canada.
“I had a really good Canadians last year and it just kind of snowballed from there. I play center field and I had a lot of put outs, and that’s kind of what put me on the map, and I hit well too, and they ended up naming me to the team,” he said, adding that his Oilmen teammate and Team Canada’s only other Albertan player, Jeff Zannoli, also helped him earn a chance at the national roster.
“He’s been on the team for four years now. He played college ball down in the states, and in my opinion he’s the best middle infielder in Canada.”
While Canada met defeat in Thursday’s Border Battle, Germain managed a solo home run in the top of the third, and a triple in a two-run, two out rally in the top of four.
“It’s kind of funny because in slo-pitch a solo home run, because your home runs are maxed, they aren’t exactly the best thing in the world,” he said, adding that it was still a special moment to round the bases in such a big game. “It was pretty cool to see it go off the scoreboard in a big game like that. It was a cool moment, even the triple after that, it was nice. I kind of got on a roll after the first day and I just tried to keep doing what I was doing.”
In total, Germain managed nine hits through 13 plate appearances in four games for a .769 batting average with three doubles, a triple, four home runs and six RBIs.
Germain pointed out that, as Canadians, he and his teammates knew what they were going up against heading into the American Softball Association Hall of Fame Stadium last week.
“We know when we’re going up against the US in a sport like slo-pitch or baseball, we know we’re up against it. It’s David and Goliath,” he said. “Those guys are pulling from 10 times the people as we are as far as picking a team, they get to play 12 months of the year, up here I get to play four . . . but just to be able to go down there and represent Canada is great, and the US guys are amazing too, they love playing against us.”
Team Canada kicked off the tournament with exhibition games on July 9 and 10, earning a 21-14 win over Okalhoma’s J and R Logistics, but meeting defeat, 25-10 at the hands of the USA National team last Tuesday. The next day Canada followed up the loss with an 18-17 victory over the USA Futures team, an achievement Germain is particularly proud of.
“To beat the Futures this year was an accomplishment for us,” Germain said of Canada’s close victory over the under-25 American national team. “Those are good ball players down there, a lot of them play college ball.”
Canada closed out Wednesday’s games with another closely contested victory, edging out Okalhoma’s FalloutSports.com, 26-24, before falling 25-10 in the Border Battle against USA on Thursday.
The 2013 Men’s Slo-Pitch Border Battle was only the fifth time the teams have met up on the national stage, and Canada has only managed one victory, in 2010. Germain said that he hopes to see the event, which has always taken place annually in Oklahoma City, move north of the border in the coming years.
“Bring the Border Battle to Canada. I know that we would draw some amazing crowds (in Ontario) because they absolutely love their slo-pitch,” he said, adding a thank you to all of those who have supported him as an athlete throughout the years. “It’s so great to have the support of a community like this, I love being from this town. It’s pretty cool to not only represent Canada, but to represent St. Paul too.”
