The Sarnia Braves need your help to win a national championship.
The baseball club is looking to raise $5,000 for team expenses for their trip to Miramichi, New Brunswick for the 2019 Senior Men's Canadian Baseball Championship later this month.
To donate, you can click here.
Assistant Coach Lance Hart said around 30 players and coaches are looking to make the trip out east.
"We've been overwhelmed by the community support so far -- it's really been amazing seeing the go-fund-me take off. We thought we were being optimistic thinking we could raise $5,000 as our goal, but already it's been amazing seeing the community coming together to support us."
The Braves clinched a spot at nationals after winning the Ontario AAA Men's Championship in Windsor earlier this month -- it's the Braves third provincial championship in franchise history.
"When we first started entering the tournament it was kind of overwhelming seeing the competition that we were facing. So this year, when we made it to Sunday and we were still undefeated we thought 'we really have a shot at this,'" said Hart. "When we were able to pull it off and our dream came true, it was insane -- some of the guys were literally in tears as we were celebrating on the field. It was huge for us and it was awesome to see the support from the community as we were coming home."
Hart, who's been with the team for 10 seasons, said this Sarnia team isn't satisfied quite yet.
"I mean we're shooting big here -- we'd like to not just show up and win a couple games, we'd like to take a run at the title. We'd like to support Sarnia and represent the city, and we're actually representing all of Ontario now, which is cool to say," he said. "I think pitching wins these tournaments, so if we get our pitchers to give us good performances, we know we have the hitters in our lineup to produce. If we combine the hitting and pitching, we can beat just about anybody in the country."
The Braves will face Nova Scotia, Quebec, New Brunswick and Manitoba in pool play August 22 to 24.
