Warhawks win regionals

Two Kahnawake Warhawks baseball teams - both of them girls’ teams - have won themselves banners in the Lac St. Louis (LSL) regionals.

The U9B girls won on Sunday against the Pierrefonds White Expos 1 by a score of 14-13.

Kahnawake got off to an early lead in the first two innings, before trading runs with Pierrefonds throughout the game, and the Warhawks found themselves down two in the top of the last inning.

Kahnawake took the lead, and kept it in the bottom of the inning, clinching the win, which the Warhawks celebrated on the field.

“You watch sports on TV and you see how everybody reacts, and it’s different once you’re in that situation, but the best way to describe it was just an instant reaction for the players, they just threw their gloves up everywhere and we all ran together,” said Warhawk’s coach Nicholas Lahache.

During that celebration, one of the players came running towards him: his daughter, Ryder.

“There’s no better experience than actually being on the field with your child in that moment,” said Lahache.

He said the girls’ biggest strength as a team this year was their resilience, especially coming off a 2024 season where they lost much more than they won and had a very brief time in regionals.

They started off the 2025 regular season 8-1-1, but had a more difficult second half, which Lahache chalks up to fatigue.

Going into regionals, he believed that they could achieve a regionals win, no matter what the second half of their season looked like.

“We just kept trying to fulfill that strong state of mind where we say ‘we can do this, we’re going to battle back. There is nothing that we haven’t done before.’ I think the girls really bought into that, especially in that final game,” said Lahache.

“We just made it a point to express to them that no matter what the outcome was that we were really proud of them, that they earned the right to be in that game based on how they played earlier.”

That win marks the end of the U9B team’s season - but Lahache said his daughter is left wanting more.

“My daughter said ‘what are we going to do now? Is there another game we can go and win?’” said Lahache.

The U15B Warhawks Girls, meanwhile, still have plenty to play for, after they clinched their regionals banner thanks to a 15-11 win against the Pierrefonds White Expos.

Although the details are not set in stone yet, they will be moving on to the LSL playoffs next, said coach Roddy Meloche.

Prior to the game, Meloche and the rest of the coaches gave the team some words of confidence.

“We said ‘there’s nothing more we could teach you. Everything’s in your hands now, and just play your game,’” said Meloche.

They did just that, with strong performances throughout the lineup at the plate and in the field.

“Everything came together,” said Meloche.

The U15B team did do some learning prior to the finals game, taking some plays they had seen from a U18 Warhawks game the team attended.

“For instance, when you get a ball four, instead of just walking to first, we would sprint full steam and take a turn, and if no one’s paying attention, we would run right to second base. It’s perfectly legal because the pitcher’s not on the mound yet,” said Meloche.

“Twice we tried it, and twice they went to throw us out at second, and our runner on third just walked in for a run.”

A parade was held in town for the U15B Warhawks, with Meloche behind the wheel of the vehicle pulling the trailer the players were in.

“They were all singing, they were all in good spirits, it worked out well,” said Meloche.

The Junior A Warhawks of the Metropolitan Junior A League are also in playoff action this week, sitting at 1-1 in their best-of-three series against the DDO Expos.

Their third game was played on Thursday after The Eastern Door’s publishing deadline. The Junior Warhawks won the opening game 6-5 on August 24 at the field by the Sports Complex, and lost the second 9-8 on the road on Tuesday night.

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