Brandon Hunter had the golden swing for the Prince George Westcana Electric Axemen.
The hometown boy powered a grand slam off Windsor Stars pitcher Steven Carter in the bottom of the fourth inning, breaking open a tight final in the 2012 RE/MAX Baseball Canada Senior championship to give the Axemen a 9-3 advantage on their way to a 9-5 win.
"That was mind-blowing," said Hunter. "It's just amazing. It's just a great feeling."
The 28 year old was the star of the weekend tournament held at Citizen Field where the 1,013 fans cheered in appreciation when he sent the ball flying over the fence in the final.
"We have a lot of great hitters and I just wanted to get on base and give them a chance to drive me in and it worked out to my advantage where I drove in a lot of runs myself," said Hunter. "Hopefully, there's a lot of little kids out there and they see this and P.G. will be back on the map for baseball."
Hunter went 3-for-3, two runs and five RBIs for the Axemen in the final after his two-run homer in the morning semifinal tied the game against the Fort Saskatchewan Athletics of Alberta.
With a batting average around .600 over five games Hunter was named the tournament's top hitter, going 10-for-15, scoring seven runs with 10 RBIs, a double and two homers.
Axemen manager Jim Swanson said the former Western Major Baseball League player with the Okotoks Dawgs more than earned his keep.
"Brandon Hunter was just everything for us," said Swanson. "He came up with clutch hits at the right times - you have to do that to win a short tournament like this. There's nobody hotter in Prince George right now then Brandon Hunter."
Prince George scattered nine hits over six innings while the Stars were only able to muster four hits off the Axemen pitching crew.
The Starts took a 1-0 lead on a Kevin Mailloux two-out homer in the first inning but the Axemen responded with four runs of their own chasing Starts southpaw Dane Little after only one-third of an inning after allowing three hits.
Sean Hotzak and Scott Webster scored for the Axemen before Bob Foerster hit a two-run single to drive in Hunter and Jeremy Kral.
Little was replaced by Steven Carter - who suffered the 2-0 loss when the teams met on opening night - who struck out Brad Ferraro before Jesse Peters flew out to deep centre to end the inning.
After two scoreless innings, the Stars pulled within a run at 4-3 in the fourth inning when Mailloux scored on a wild pitch by Axemen starter Ryan Eiswerth.
Thomas Grubb scored from second on an Axemen error on the same play.
There lead cut down to one run the Axemen didn't panic Peters pounded a leadoff homer over the left-field wall for the Axemen in the bottom of the inning before Hunter smashed home his grand slam to expand the lead to 9-3.
Keenan Takatch replaced Eiswerth on the Axemen's mound in the top of the fifth inning after the starter loaded the bases with no outs. The Stars were able to score two runs to reduce their deficit to 9-5 but Takatch ended the threat with a strikeout.
Dillion Reynolds took over on the Axemen mound in the top of the seventh, closing out the win with two strikeouts and a flyout.
"It's something I've dreamed about, you think about what it's going to be like when the last out's recorded and you allow your mind to wander, for me, my mind goes to all the people who put all the time in," said Swanson, who won two bronze medals at nationals as a player. "I think our host team actually finishes second in this to our host committee.
"The host committee is the gold medalist in all this and the ones who provided the opportunity that can't get lost in all of this," he added.
In addition to Hunter, three other Prince George players were solid contributors in the Axemen win - Matt Stang, Justin Fillion and Kral.
"We used all the best P.G. guys that were able to help us have an impact on this tournament and look what they did, everyone of them contributed," said Swanson. "All the guys on the team were just extremely happy to be representing the host team. We had a bit of a swagger to us, not a cockiness, but nobody was in that dugout thinking we weren't going to win games."
In the bronze-medal game the Fort Saskatchewan Athletics of Alberta rebounded from a four-run deficit for a 6-5 win over the Chatham Ironmen of New Brunswick. Andy Herman was 3-for-4 with runs scored and an RBI for the A's while Mark Kuzyk was 1-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored.
Derek Wilson was 3-for-4 with a run and two RBIs.
It was the first time a Prince George based team was crowned with the senior men's national title and the first time a host team won the tournament since Quebec City in 2007.
The Axemen (4-1) beat the defending 2011 champion Stars twice and also beat Nova Scotia 10-0 before earning a 4-2 win over the Athletics in the semifinal.
Hunter said he hopes his bat stays hot as he tries to help the Red Sox rebound in their best-of-five series with the Gladiators in the Prince George Senior Baseball League playoffs Tuesday in Game 4. The Gladiators lead two games to one.
But on Sunday night Hunter, who won two WMBL titles with the Dawgs and played semipro ball in Australia, was just planning on celebrating
"This the top; it's a national championship nothing can compete," he said.
