Stittsville beats Easton 5-1 on Thursday

from Sam Oliver

There was an air of anticipation at the Carp Fair Grounds on Thursday night. The site would host a double header featuring four of the GOFL's leading teams; the first match up pitting the Stittsville 56ers against Team Easton for the third time this week, with the season series on the line. Adding to the electricity was the fact that local news man Terry Marcotte would be on hand to do a feature story on the GOFL, expecting to see two of the league's premier pitchers, Dan Bradley and Dan Konkle, duel it out.

When the first pitch was thrown however, Dan Konkle was conspicuous by his absence - perhaps a sign of things to come. Instead, it was Quyon legend, Todd Fraser, known more for towering home runs and not ever being stuck for words, that delivered the pitch. The first Stittsville batter, Ryan Bond opened the scoring by taking the 4th Fraser offering over the left field fence. Then with one out, Dan Jessiman doubled and advance to third on a Fraser wild pitch. He would later score on a ground ball off the bat of Darren Featherstone, giving the 56ers a two run lead after the first half inning.

Stittsville would score 2 more in the second on the strength of a Dan Bradley 2 run homerun over the centerfield fence. Fraser would finish the inning, but was relieved in the third. Once again, it would not be Konkle getting the call from the bull pen, but his young protege Kyle
Olsen. The kid would go on to pitch 5 strong innings allowing only 1 run. Back to back singles by Darren Featherstone and Sam Oliver to open the 5th inning, put runners at 2nd and 3rd with no one out. Although Olsen retired the next three batters, Featherstone was able to score on a ground ball of the bat of Scott Jessiman, stretching the Stittsville lead to 5 - 0.

As expected, Stittsville ace Dan Bradley started the game, and pitched masterfully for the win. The tall right hander did not allow a runner until Cory Morrison walked in the 4th. The first hit he surrendered, was a single by John Peck in the 5th. Easton did manage a run in the seventh to break the goose egg. Consecutive singles by Pat O'Connor, Scott Marion, and Dave Tubman resulted in the lone Easton run.

The third inning saw CTV's Terry Marcotte step into the box. Although the newsman had played some baseball in his youth, he had never played fastpitch. He did well to catch a piece of the 2nd Bradley drop ball offering, but Marcotte was retired on strikes in three consecutive pitches.

The top of the 4th saw Marcotte playing the one bag where he received an initiation by fire as Tim Power started the inning by ripping a hard liner just to the right of the reporter. Unphased, Marcotte finished the inning recording two put outs in the process, the last two outs of the inning.

With the game completed, Dan Konkle could be contained no longer. During the third inning of the West Carleton - Carp match up, Konkle would make his presence known. Commandeering a local resident's mini-motor cycle, the Easton right hander raced onto the field of play through the centerfield gate. After completing a tour through the outfield and around the home plate umpire (including one fall and many near falls), Konkle raced back through the outfield gate from which he had entered. The exit was not a thing of grace. Twenty feet beyond the outfield fence, the star pitcher, who's riding style can best be described as "unstable" (not unlike his personality) performed a cyclist's worst fear - "The Endo". He flew over the handle bars of the tiny bike and after a short tumbling demonstration, emerged on his feet with a smile on his face. The bike did suffer some minor damage - CLASSIC! (picture to follow tomorrow).