I4C goes 2-2 at Elkland Open Tourney

from Shawn Williams

First, before reading the attached story on the blog, I would suggest that any team from Eastern Ontario that wants to attend a tournament with quality competition, your club should consider the Elkland Tournament in Elkland, PA. Elkland is just across the New York state border in northern Pennsylvania. It’s about 5 ½ hours from Ottawa/Kanata to Elkland. The organizers have always taken the distance our team has had to travel when setting up the schedule so we have always been scheduled for late morning/early afternoon. This year there were 17 teams in the tournament including ISC Finalists the NY Patsy’s as well as the NY Gremlins that included such players as former Canadian National Team pitcher, Steve Price and New Zealand National Team player, Jared Martin. ISC II fourth place finisher, The Rise was also there. If you want your team to get better and have some good competition, this is a tournament to consider.

Rain dampens weekend but not spirits of softball players and fans.

The Carp I4C Victory team headed to Elkland, PA over the Labour Day weekend under sunny skies and full of hope for a successful weekend tournament. Unfortunately, Hurricane Ernesto had something to say about that. After getting the first game in on Friday night between host Elkland and local team Keenyville Fastpitch, the skies opened up around 2:00 AM on Saturday and did not let up for 24 hours straight forcing organizers to scramble with the schedule, a washed out field and challenging conditions on the other two diamonds. As a result, all games on Sunday were reduced to five innings with a mercy rule of seven runs after four innings. It was a tremendous job done by the tournament organizers under the most challenging conditions most teams, players and fans had seen in many years.

Carp opened up against host Elkland at 1:00 PM on Sunday. Elkland had recruited former New Zealand National team pitcher, Paul Algar as well as Bill Hillhouse, a former pitcher on the U.S. National team and younger brother of Elkand’s regular starting pitcher, Hugh Hillhouse. Algar started the game for Elkland and Carp countered with its ace, Neil Cooke. It was something of a challenge for the I4C Victory as Algar had defeated Carp the last two times the team had made the trip to Elkland. Those years, Algar was throwing for Shaggy Dog out of Erie, PA. A series of timely hits, strong pitching by Cooke and solid defence had Carp out to a 4-1 lead after 3 ½ innings of play. In the bottom of the fourth, Carp Head Coach and General Manager, Shawn Williams made a change, bringing in Dan Bradley, a pick-up from the Stittsville 56ers for the weekend. After giving up a lead-off walk, Bradley shut down Elkland in the fourth and the score was still 4-1 going into the 5th inning. The Victory didn’t add any runs in its half of the fifth but in the bottom of the fifth, Elkland mounted a comeback. After making the score 4-2, Elkland put two more runners in scoring position and drove those two in to tie the score at 4-4. Williams went back to Cooke to try and close the door and take the game to extra innings but with a runner on second, a soft bloop single to left field would score the runner from second on a close play at the plate. The hard but clean slide jarred the ball loose from Carp catcher, Shawn Houle and the final score was 5-4 for Elkland and a cracked rib for Houle.

Carp’s second game was against local team, Bill’s Produce. Williams told the team before the game that this would be the toughest game for Carp to win that weekend after the emotional letdown of losing to Elkland and Williams’ words proved to be prophetic. The game was played on Diamond 2 where the area in front of the 3rd base dugout was a small lake. The first base dugout was a mud bowl but that’s what 24 hours of straight rain will do to a ball field. Carp started Bradley in this game and with Houle sitting out, Pete Pettit took over the catching duties. Bradley and Pettit just couldn’t get a rhythm going and with the balls being very slick a series of passed balls and wild pitches and a couple of hits by Bill’s Produce had Carp down 3-0 early in the game. Carp battled back scoring two runs of its own and made some defensive changes, bringing Mike Money in from his regular centrefield position to catch. Pettit returned to his regular second base position and Russ Mitchell moved to the outfield. However, things didn’t get much better and a two run homer by Bill’s Produce catcher, Tim McCloskey produced two more runs for the locals making the score 5-2. Williams went to the bullpen again, bringing in
19-year-old right hander, Chad Hargrove. Hargrove settled in nicely and shut down Bill’s Produce the rest of the way. In the top of the fourth, Carp got things going on offence and scored four runs to take a slim 6-5 lead. In the top of the fifth, the Victory scored three more making the final 9-5 on the darkening fields of unlit Diamond 2.

Carp’s last scheduled game for Sunday evening was moved to Monday morning at 7:30 AM against Aqua Specialists. The Carp bats were ready and with Hargrove on the mound, I4C Victory won handily, 9-1. This brought up a meeting for the third time in a row at the Elkland tournament against Shaggy Dog. Cooke started for Carp while Erie countered with Toronto native and well traveled softball nomad, Tom Berube. Erie opened with an unearned run in the top of the first, when its lead off hitter reached second on an error and was advanced to third on a fielder’s choice before scoring on a sacrifice fly to left field. In the top of the second, with runners at second and third and two out, the Dogs’ number nine hitter hit a ball that barely eluded the glove of Pettit at second base. Pettit managed to knock the ball down but two runs scored making it 3-0 after 1 ½ innings. Things stayed that way until the fourth when Carp answered back with a run of its own. In the bottom of the sixth, controversy erupted when Tim Power hit a double down the third base line scoring another run for Carp and making the score 3-2. Erie protested and crossed the line resulting in the ejection of its catcher and first base coach. There were some words exchanged between Williams and a number of the Erie players before cooler heads prevailed. Erie removed Berube and replaced him with its first baseman who shut down Carp making the final score 3-2 for Shaggy Dog.

It was a successful weekend for the I4C Victory as the team outscored its opponents, 24-14. Hargrove had both wins for the Victory while Cooke and Bradley were both 0-1.