COTE St. LUC, Que. -- Infielder Jared Kersh of South Salem, N.Y., drove in four runs as McGill opened the Canadian Collegiate Baseball Association playoffs with a lopsided 11-1 victory over the visiting Ottawa Gee-Gees in the first game of a doubleheader at Gary Carter Field on Saturday. 

The Redmen will take a 1-0 lead into Game 2 this afternoon of the CCBA Northern Division best-of-three semifinal series.

McGill, which racked up 14 hits, scored in every inning until the "mercy rule" came into effect. They tallied four runs in the first inning, then added one in the second and third, followed by two in the fourth and fifth and one more in the sixth. With McGill leading 8-0, Ottawa broke the shutout bid with a run in the top of the fifth.

Kersh, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound third baseman, went 3-for-3 from the fifth spot in the batting order and scored once The economics sophomore had a two-run double in the first, an RBI  double in the fourth, and an RBI single in the fifth.

Four Redmen had multi-hit performances, including Sasha Lagarde (2/5, 2 RBI), Jonathan Duforest (3/4, 3 RBI) and Rocky Hroch, who was 4-for-4.

McGill starter Phil Saad, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound right-hander from Lorraine, Que., allowed one run on three hits over five innings for the win. The economics sophomore struck out eight and walked two.

Henry Dennis, a junior from Scarborough, Ont., who was slated to start Game 2 of the doubleheader,  threw one inning in relief out of the bullpen and gave up a pair of hits.

Ottawa starter Ray Yang, one of four Gee-Gees pitchers in the game, took the loss. He lasted three innings, allowing six runs (five earned) on seven hits while striking out one, walking three and hitting one.

The Redmen improved to 28-5-1 overall, including a 16-0 record in regular season play.