UPEI Panthers win second baseball title in two years

Nathan Nielsen will not forget the early stages of the UPEI Panthers baseball program.

And with good reason.

In its first two years of existence, the UPEI baseball program has won back-to-back Atlantic Collegiate Baseball Association titles and are now guaranteed a berth in the 2026 and 2027 Canadian university championships.

“It’s super special,” Nielsen, who has been part of both championship teams, told The Guardian in a phone interview after the Panthers’ 4-3 win over UNB in the 2026 ACBA final at Memorial Field in Charlottetown on Oct. 18.

“I’m done after this year, but for these young guys – and being able to build this culture and a program that’s only two-years-old and we’re looking at two Atlantic championships in two years and we’re going to head to nationals twice in two years – it’s super special for this group of guys. A lot of hard work’s gone into this.”

The Panthers completed the ACBA championship, hosted by the Holland Hurricanes, with a perfect 4-0 (won-lost) record after just sneaking into the playoffs following a 9-5 regular season.

“It came down to a tiebreaker between three teams, and we happened to sneak in over Dalhousie,” said Panthers third baseman Sam Worth. “To be here was one thing, and then to see how the guys came together this weekend and put together really good at-bats and play really good defence behind our pitching and save our ace for Sunday and then get the job done felt really good.”

Left-hander Tanner MacLean pitched a complete game in the title-clinching win after the Panthers struck for a four-running inning early in the final.

“Going in (Oct. 18), we knew we were in a pretty good spot being 3-0, and we still had one of our best pitchers, Tanner MacLean, to come on,” said Panthers head coach Patrick Young. “He hadn’t thrown a pitch all weekend.

“We were waiting for Sunday to use him and things just worked out… And he did what he does – deals – and we got some run support for him early and just kept picking away for outs.”

The Panthers had little time to celebrate as the team busses to Ottawa on Oct. 21 for the Canadian university baseball championship, hosted by Carleton University, from Oct. 22 to 25.

“Even in our post-game talk, Patty said, ‘The job’s not finished. We still want to win the national title,'” said UPEI second baseman Graysen LaPorte of Cornwall, P.E.I. “We knew all year we were always going to nationals, and our goal was always to win the nationals.”

Young described the first two years of the UPEI baseball program as awesome.

“Starting a new program, you never really know what’s going to happen, and last year we had some really good success – we had a really good team,” said Young. “Going into this year, we knew we had a lot of guys returning, but we lost some key pieces, too.

“We had some guys come up from high school, some first-year guys, that really, really fit in really nicely.

Nielson credited the Panthers’ strong play, which included round-robin wins of 10-0 over Acadia; 6-1 versus UNB, and 4-2 against Holland College, to the team’s depth.

“We have a fantastic pitching staff, and we only used five pitchers all weekend,” said Nielson. “They were super effective.

“We had lots of timely hitting; lots of big bats in our lineup and guys that aren’t always the hero stepping up and coming up with some clutch hits when we needed them the most, and just playing a gritty style baseball the way we like to play.”

LaPorte also talked about the importance of UPEI’s strong team chemistry.

“We may have some off days but we usually stay up and try and pick each other up,” said LaPorte, 21. “I think that’s what’s best about our team.

“Other teams may get down, but us, we pick each other up and we’re always confident and have a positive attitude.”

Nielson, who is a first baseman, felt the Panthers may have played their best baseball of the short season in the ACBA championship.

“It’s definitely up there for sure,” said the 22-year-old Nielson, from Alberry Plains, P.E.I. “It’s a quick season being six or seven weeks here and we kind of piece it together when everyone gets here for school and you have put it together quick.

“At the start, it’s a little rusty, but definitely this weekend was by far our best baseball – clean.”

Although Worth agrees the Panthers played really good ball, the 22-year-old from Stratford, P.E.I., feels the team may have another gear.

“I think we also have a little bit more to give,” said Worth. “Our bats were really good and there’s obviously always stuff to improve upon, but I think we played really well and played against a lot of good ball teams this weekend.

“It takes playing good baseball to beat them… I’m hoping we play our best games of the year in Ottawa.”

Jason Simmonds is a sports reporter at The Guardian in Prince Edward Island. He can be reached at jsimmonds@postmedia.com and followed on X @JpsportsJason.