Carp I4C Victory goes 2-2 in 45th Au Sable Forks

from Shawn Williams
Carp I4C Victory goes 2-2 in 45th Au Sable Forks Fastball Tournament and makes it to Semi-Finals
Neil Cooke loses heartbreaker to Knoxville/Ontario, 3-0 in Game 2

Four games, two teams, two wins against two teams, two losses to same two teams, two, two too much. As Yogi Berra said, “It was like déjà vu all over again.”

The Carp I4C Victory traveled to Au Sable Forks, NY to participate in the 45th Annual Au Sable Forks Fastball Tournament, the Classic of Upstate New York. The Carp roster was supplemented with four players from the Quyon Flyers and one from the Orleans Gators.

Game 1

Carp played a solid game in its first tilt on Saturday afternoon against the St. Leonard Express Juniors, a team that Carp had beaten earlier in the year in the Kingston Cowboys tournament on the May long weekend. Paul Ceppi took to the mound for Carp while St. Leonard countered with Mathieu Benoit. Behind the strong pitching performance of Ceppi, some excellent defence from Kyle Gourgon at short on the grass infield that is a converted baseball diamond for this tournament and a solo shot off the bat of Joe McCleary of the Quyon Flyers, Carp won the first game 4-2.

Game 2

This was one that was a real heartbreaker for Carp. But for one walk, Victory sponsor and starting pitcher, Neil Cooke would have had a perfect game going into the bottom of the seventh inning. But the no hitter was still intact as he faced Lefty Clark of Knoxville. With two strikes on him, Clark hit a single up the middle to break up the no hitter. However, with a runner on first and eleven strikeouts by Cooke, Carp was confident that the game would go to extra innings. Then Lyle Brown stuck his bat out to bloop a single into shallow right field. With runners now on first and second, Carp sensed that clean-up hitter, Kip Adams would bunt. But the gamesmanship between the two respective coaches continued. Knoxville knew that if Adams laid down a sacrifice bunt that would leave an open base at first and that Carp would probably intentionally walk the number five hitter to load the bases and draw the infield in. That would put Clark on third, who is not the fastest runner and allow Carp the potential of a double play or at least an out at home. Then with two out, Carp would have a force anywhere or a fly ball would get them out of the inning. Knoxville wisely let Adams hit away and he smashed the first Cooke offering over the left field fence and into the back of a red pick-up truck parked fortuitously just beyond the fence. The walk off home run gave Knoxville the 3-0 win.

Game 3

Revenge is sweet. Through a unique draw system to determine seedings for Sunday’s games, Carp actually was declared the “winner” of its pool. All three teams in the pool had identical records of 1-1. The way to break any ties had been determined on Saturday by drawing a number out of a hat to determine which team would finish ahead if there were any ties. Through nothing but sheer luck, Carp Head Coach, Shawn Williams drew number seven (out of nine teams) while Knoxville had drawn number eight and St. Leonard had drawn number nine. This made Carp the home team for its re-match with Knoxville on Sunday morning.

In the second game between the two clubs in less than 24 hours, this game was also tied 0-0 going into the bottom of the seventh. Lefty Clark had again started for Knoxville while Matt Greer of Quyon, started for Carp. Despite having to pitch out of a bases loaded situation early in the game, Greer managed to keep Knoxville off the score sheet. Then in the bottom of the seventh, Matt McNish lined a double into centre bringing Joran Graham to the plate. The young 18-year-old came through in the clutch with a double that went to the temporary fence in centrefield and bounced through for a ground rule double scoring McNish from second and giving Carp a dramatic 1-0 win.

Game 4.

This was the second time Carp faced a team that it had already faced in the tournament. This time it was a re-match against the St. Leonard Express Juniors, a team Carp had faced just 24 hours earlier. The Express were coming off an emotional quarter-final win over Gordon Oil/20 Main, a locally sponsored team by Jon Gordon and Theron Snow that was dotted with players from Ottawa Team Easton Thunder and Manotick Lomor Printers. The Express had come back to win 5-3 after being down 3-0 heading into the top of the seventh.

Carp was unsure if St. Leonard would ride a wave of emotion or if they would be drained from a dramatic last minute comeback win against the local team. In the end, it was neither. St. Leonard took an early 1-0 lead on a walk, a wild pitch and a single. Carp countered back with two runs of its own to make the score 2-1. St. Leonard scrapped back to go ahead 3-2 at which point, Williams made a change putting Ceppi in for Cooke. The lean right hander from Chatham, Ontario had handled St. Leonard quite well the day before. But control problems combined with just not quite finding the strike zone had Carp down 4-2. Then in the top of the fourth with a runner on third and two out, Jonathon Darveau drew a walk for St. Leonard. With the ball in the circle and in Ceppi’s control, Darveau started dancing off of first base in an effort to distract the pitcher and what was clearly a lead off by the rule book. Despite the protestations of Williams, Darveau was allowed to remain at first instead of being the third out of the inning. The next batter hit a single to make the score 5-2 and St. Leonard added one more in the sixth off of Graham who had replaced Ceppi in the fifth inning.

With the score 6-2 in the bottom of the seventh, Matt Alkerton of the Orleans Gators pinch hit to lead off the inning. Despite fouling off a couple of good pitches, Alkerton struck out. The next batter was Steve McCord, an addition from Quyon, who singled to centre. Mike Money hit an infield single to put runners at first and second and with one out, Kyle Gourgon came to the plate and despite his efforts, he struck out for the second out of the inning. Then up to the plate came Big Joe McCleary from Quyon who launched a three-run home run to right field to make the score 6-5. The umpires missed call on the lead off was now coming back to haunt Carp. Matt McNish came to the plate and with Frankie LeClair now in the circle for St. Leonard, McNish drew a very patient walk. He stole second and on the throw down injured his hip. McNish was replaced by Carp Player/Assistant Coach, Eric Rosenquist. Graham was at the plate with an 0-2 count and the LeClair drop ball was too tempting to lay off and he struck out to end the game.

Carp finished tied for third with a 2-2 record and a very respectable showing at the 45th Annual Au Sable Forks Fastpitch Tournament. The team is already making plans to return next year.

Carp’s next game is this Wednesday night, July 18th at 9:00 PM when it takes on the Ottawa Blitz in Manotick. The Victory’s next home game is Thursday, July 19th at 8:30 PM versus the Quyon Flyers at the Carp Fairgrounds. Admission to all home games is free.