GOFL teams have fun, fare well at AuSable Forks Tourney
Submitted by Shawn Williams and Scott Dumouchel
This past weekend three teams from the GOFL participated in the 44th Annual AuSable Forks (NY) Fastpitch Classic. This tournament was started in 1963 and over the years has seen notable fastball stars from Eastern Ontario play in it, win and come home with various awards. Past winners of MVP and Top Pitcher awards include Chris Bresse, Greg “Tumble” MacLaren, Brian O’Neill, the late Ronny “Zipper” Greenham and Brent Bradley who pitched for many years for Carp in the former West Carleton Fastball League.
Manotick Lomor Printers and Carp I4C Victory took down a combined team and the Ottawa Blitz took a core of players and picked up some others from contacts that they have. The Manotick/Carp combo was sponsored by local AuSable Forks businessman, Jon Gordon of Gordon Oil. Players were outfitted with Gordon Oil t-shirts with the now famous, “I’d rather my sister be a hooker, then my brother play slowpitch” slogan emblazoned on the back of the t-shirts. There were complaints that some of the t-shirts were pre-stained and that the $4.00 (yes $4.00!) all you can eat chicken, hot dog and burger feast on Friday night at local watering hole, 20 Main had nothing to do with the stains suddenly appearing on Saturday morning.
Carp opened up with a squeaker of a win, 1-0 over local team 20 Main on Friday night in the opening game of the tournament. That was followed up with a 5-1 loss to perennial top 10 ISC team, Heflin Builders featuring former Canadian National Team pitcher, Steve Price. Trevor Wood of Carp I4C Victory was particularly strong on the mound for Gordon Oil and even more so considering he left Ottawa at 4:30 AM Saturday to make it for the 11:00 AM game. For some reason, Trevor thought the game was at 9:00 AM. Tony Riches and Neil Cooke combined for a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Blitz in the 3:00 PM contest on Saturday. In that game Jim Blakely had a strong game at the plate for the Blitz. The veteran hitter (who let it slip on the weekend that his birth year is 1949, but who’s counting) hit a solid double to the fence off of Riches and followed that up with a single to left in his next plate appearance off of Cooke. It wasn’t until the bottom of the 7th with the bases loaded that local AuSable product, Drew Plumadore, pinch hitting for Calvin Medynski, hit a single to right to win the game for the Oilers.
After a number of refreshments on Saturday at the Gordon residence and 20 Main, the Oilers were well oiled but a little rusty the next morning in their game against CPI (formerly McKie’s Sport) one of the top ranked ISC II teams. The Oilers loaded (loaded being the key word) the bases in the third and with one out, two of the blearier eyed players on the Oilers went down looking. It must have been the nasty fall in the parking lot at 20 Main the night before that affected the first of those two players to go down looking at a flat rise ball at the waist. The Oilers scored two in the bottom of the seventh and left Kevin Chevrier of Kanata Team Easton who had also made the trip, stranded at second base. Final score, 3-2 for CPI.
The Blitz first played 20 Main on Saturday at 11:00AM and won 9-2 with Gord Flannery throwing 5 solid innings with the mercy rule in effect. This game was played on a baseball field where the field was 335' in the corners, and there was some in the park homeruns. The infield was all grass as well. Game 2 played at 3:00 PM saw the Blitz falling 3-2 to Gordon Oil with Luc Thibault from St-Leonard, QC taking the loss after a shaky start. Game 3 had the Blitz playing Heflin at 7PM. The boys fell 7-0 in a 5 inning mercy ruled game. Gord Flannery had the loss throwing 1 2/3 innings of play. Steven Bishop of P.E.I. came in for relief and game up 2 runs. The Gremlins just blooped the balls into holes and a couple of Blitz errors made the game out of reach. The first playoff game saw Ottawa face the St-Leonard Express Jrs. in the Quarters on Sunday morning. Ottawa lost 6-1 on D2, the baseball field, where the Express players would run forever after blooping hits into play. Steven Bishop took the loss going 4 innings and giving up 6 runs with relief from Gord Flannery and Luc Thibault throwing 1 inning each and 0 runs.
The Blitz hope to return next year with Greg Perrin and Tom O'Neil and the volunteers taking great care of the boys and the team had an awesome time.
All in all, a great weekend for those who attended.
This past weekend three teams from the GOFL participated in the 44th Annual AuSable Forks (NY) Fastpitch Classic. This tournament was started in 1963 and over the years has seen notable fastball stars from Eastern Ontario play in it, win and come home with various awards. Past winners of MVP and Top Pitcher awards include Chris Bresse, Greg “Tumble” MacLaren, Brian O’Neill, the late Ronny “Zipper” Greenham and Brent Bradley who pitched for many years for Carp in the former West Carleton Fastball League.
Manotick Lomor Printers and Carp I4C Victory took down a combined team and the Ottawa Blitz took a core of players and picked up some others from contacts that they have. The Manotick/Carp combo was sponsored by local AuSable Forks businessman, Jon Gordon of Gordon Oil. Players were outfitted with Gordon Oil t-shirts with the now famous, “I’d rather my sister be a hooker, then my brother play slowpitch” slogan emblazoned on the back of the t-shirts. There were complaints that some of the t-shirts were pre-stained and that the $4.00 (yes $4.00!) all you can eat chicken, hot dog and burger feast on Friday night at local watering hole, 20 Main had nothing to do with the stains suddenly appearing on Saturday morning.
Carp opened up with a squeaker of a win, 1-0 over local team 20 Main on Friday night in the opening game of the tournament. That was followed up with a 5-1 loss to perennial top 10 ISC team, Heflin Builders featuring former Canadian National Team pitcher, Steve Price. Trevor Wood of Carp I4C Victory was particularly strong on the mound for Gordon Oil and even more so considering he left Ottawa at 4:30 AM Saturday to make it for the 11:00 AM game. For some reason, Trevor thought the game was at 9:00 AM. Tony Riches and Neil Cooke combined for a 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Blitz in the 3:00 PM contest on Saturday. In that game Jim Blakely had a strong game at the plate for the Blitz. The veteran hitter (who let it slip on the weekend that his birth year is 1949, but who’s counting) hit a solid double to the fence off of Riches and followed that up with a single to left in his next plate appearance off of Cooke. It wasn’t until the bottom of the 7th with the bases loaded that local AuSable product, Drew Plumadore, pinch hitting for Calvin Medynski, hit a single to right to win the game for the Oilers.
After a number of refreshments on Saturday at the Gordon residence and 20 Main, the Oilers were well oiled but a little rusty the next morning in their game against CPI (formerly McKie’s Sport) one of the top ranked ISC II teams. The Oilers loaded (loaded being the key word) the bases in the third and with one out, two of the blearier eyed players on the Oilers went down looking. It must have been the nasty fall in the parking lot at 20 Main the night before that affected the first of those two players to go down looking at a flat rise ball at the waist. The Oilers scored two in the bottom of the seventh and left Kevin Chevrier of Kanata Team Easton who had also made the trip, stranded at second base. Final score, 3-2 for CPI.
The Blitz first played 20 Main on Saturday at 11:00AM and won 9-2 with Gord Flannery throwing 5 solid innings with the mercy rule in effect. This game was played on a baseball field where the field was 335' in the corners, and there was some in the park homeruns. The infield was all grass as well. Game 2 played at 3:00 PM saw the Blitz falling 3-2 to Gordon Oil with Luc Thibault from St-Leonard, QC taking the loss after a shaky start. Game 3 had the Blitz playing Heflin at 7PM. The boys fell 7-0 in a 5 inning mercy ruled game. Gord Flannery had the loss throwing 1 2/3 innings of play. Steven Bishop of P.E.I. came in for relief and game up 2 runs. The Gremlins just blooped the balls into holes and a couple of Blitz errors made the game out of reach. The first playoff game saw Ottawa face the St-Leonard Express Jrs. in the Quarters on Sunday morning. Ottawa lost 6-1 on D2, the baseball field, where the Express players would run forever after blooping hits into play. Steven Bishop took the loss going 4 innings and giving up 6 runs with relief from Gord Flannery and Luc Thibault throwing 1 inning each and 0 runs.
The Blitz hope to return next year with Greg Perrin and Tom O'Neil and the volunteers taking great care of the boys and the team had an awesome time.
All in all, a great weekend for those who attended.
posted by fitzroyfastball | 7/10/2006 09:30:00 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home