The Independent Staff

An outstanding freshman year with the Fanshawe Falcons has earned MacKenzie Kelly rookie of the year honours in Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) women’s softball league.

The Oil Springs native collected 27 hits over 22 games and had the fifth best batting average in the province at .450.

While hitting safely in 17 regular season games, the Enniskillen Express product collected two doubles, two triples and a home run.  She also drove in 17 runs and scored 17 times, drew seven walks and stole five bases.

The LCCVI grad and her Fanshawe mates competed at the OCAA provincial championships this past weekend in Kitchener and claimed the bronze.

The Falcons faced the Durham Lords.  Fanshawe got in trouble early, giving up four runs in the first inning.  After falling behind 9-0, Fanshawe tried to come back but fell by a final score of 10-3.  Kelly would be named the Falcons Player of the Game.

Fanshawe fell behind early to the Hawks in game two.  After the top of the third, Fanshawe was down 7-1.  The Falcons bats started to heat up and over the next two innings, closed the gap to one and trailed 7-6 with two innings to play.  In the bottom of the sixth, Fanshawe scored two runs and took the lead to win 8-7.

On Saturday, the Falcons would take on the St. Clair Saints in the bronze medal game.  The Saints jumped out to a 4-0 lead after five innings.  Fanshawe scored one in the top of the sixth but that is as close as they came as the Saints won the game 7-1.  Fanshawe was awarded the bronze medal and Kelly was named an OCAA Tournament All-Star.