Micksburg wins Upper Ottawa Valley Men's Fastball League title for third consecutive year

Photo from the Pembroke Daily Observer Website.

CHAMPIONS - The Micksburg Twins are the 2006 Upper Ottawa Valley Men's Fastball League champions after defeating the Pontiac Royals 3-0 in game five of the finals Tuesday evening. Kneeling in front are (from left) Barry McIntyre, Jamey Mick, Scott Bell, Jerry McIntyre and Brent McIntyre. Standing in back are (from left) Kerr Childerhose, Chad Costello, Kevin Humphries, Corey Costello, Joran Graham and Wayne Ready.

Micksburg 3 Pontiac 0 - Twins win the series 4 games to 1
from Shawn Laframboise

Micksburg defeated Pontiac 3 – 0 to win the UOVMFL championship 4 games to1. Corey Costello got the win scattering 5 hits over seven solid innings ofwork. Darren Featherstone suffered the loss allowing all three runs in four innings of work. Mark Wright came in to the game for the Royals and pitched three shut out innings to no avail.

In the top of the first, the Micksburg ace fanned the first three batters he faced to get out of a quick first inning. Costello was moved up to the leadoff spot in the Twins line-up in hopes that the Royals would finally pitch to him and they did. In his first at bat he popped out to right field, and the Royals escaped the first three up, three down.

In the second inning, with one out, Joe McCleary busted out of his slump with a solid hit up the middle, but was unable to score from second base.

Both teams were held off the score sheet until the fourth inning. In the top of the fourth, Featherstone led off for the Royals, and reached first on a throwing error charged to the Micksburg pitcher. He was also left stranded on second at the end of the inning.

In the bottom half of the inning, with two out and one man already on base, coach Tim Ferrigan elected to give Costello the free pass. Barry McIntyre then came up with a clutch hit to score the games first and eventual winning run. The single advanced Costello to third, and McIntyre reached second with the throw going home. Kerr Childerose then stepped up to the plate and knocked a base hit to center field, scoring the other two Micksburg runs. After Jamey Mick reached first in the next at bat, Featherstone was pulled for Wright, and he got out of the inning with a ground ball to second baseman Ron Laronde.

In the fifth inning, Tony Newberry hit a line drive single to right field (the first of his two hits on the night), but again the Royals couldn’t cash in the base runner. With Mark Wright up next, he struck out and then said how he was having vision problems.

In the bottom half of the inning, Wright allowed a walk to the lead off batter and said he had to come out of the game because he thought he was having a stroke, seeing double of everything. It turned out that one of his lens’ fell out before his previous at bat and he stayed in the game for the duration.

Matt Greer led off with a double in the sixth but the Royals were unable to mount more than one hit per inning, and the Twins won the Upper OttawaValley Men’s Fastball League championship in five games.

Congratulations to both teams on a great season.

Pembroke Daily Observer story: http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=207971&catname=Sports&classif=