Stittsville defeats Carp 3-2 on Wednesday

from Shawn Williams/I4C website

There was a lot on the line at Wednesday's game in Stittsville at Alexander Grove Park between the Stittsville 56ers and Carp I4C Victory. Carp was tied with Ottawa Team Easton Thunder for first place in the Greater Ottawa Fastball League (GOFL) each with 26 points. Stittsville was sitting one point back of both of those clubs with 25 points. A win or a tie for Carp and they would be guaranteed no worse than second place and Stittsville would finish third. A win by Stittsville would put the 56ers in first and force Carp to beat the Thunder on Thursday in order to clinch first place in the league.

Both teams were short some of their regular players and had players playing out of their regular positions. Even then it was still an entertaining and competitive game with something on the line for both teams.

Trevor Wood took to the circle for Carp while the 56ers countered with Darren Featherstone, a member of Carp's tournament team. There was some great pitching and great defence by both teams in this one.

The 56ers scored first in this one. In the bottom of the second, Sam Oliver led off and hit a ball to shallow left field between short and third and tried to stretch it into a double. But great hustle and an excellent throw to second by shortstop, Pete Pettit, who normally plays second and a great tag by Tim Hodgins, who was added to the Carp line-up just minutes before the game, had Oliver out at second. That proved to be a big out and stop a potentially big inning early in the game as Featherstone followed with a one out single. A walk to Scott Jessiman put runners at first and second and after Tim Power struck out looking, an error to Pettit on a hard hit ball allowed Featherstone to score and make it 1-0 Stittsville.

In the bottom of the fourth, Sam Oliver added another hit and this time there was no doubt about it being a double despite the effort of the Carp defence to make a play at second for the second time in the game and try to get Oliver out for the second time stretching a single into a double. Oliver advanced to third on a fielder's choice. Pettit made two excellent 6-3 outs but Oliver was able to move up on the one. With two out and an 0-2 count to Power, the veteran hitter reached down and hit one off of his shoelaces that scored Oliver from third to make it 2-0 Stittsville. Carp had some chances early in the game and going into the top of the sixth the team had stranded four runners.

With one out in the top of the sixth, Wood reached on an error by second baseman, Scott Jessiman who normally plays first base. A walk to Brooks Paziuk was followed by a Casey Poldervaart RBI single scoring Wood and moving Paziuk to third. With Pete Pettit at the plate, he hit a ball to shortstop, Dan Jessiman who normally plays centre or right field. Jessiman couldn't make the throw allowing Paziuk to score and tie the game at 2-2.

But Jessiman would make up for the error. In the bottom of the sixth on a 1-1 count, Jessiman hit a change up that made its way over the fence in centre at the Grove and put Stittsville back in front, 3-2.

However, Carp was not about to quit. In the top of the seventh, number nine hitter, Russ Mitchell drew a walk. With Mike Money at the plate he hit a fly ball that was somehow mishandled by the right fielder allowing Mitchell to make it to third and Money was now at first. After Money stole second on his own, Carp had runners on second and third with nobody out. Al Read hot a hard shot to John Craig a third. Craig, who just this week agreed to join Carp for the ISC II Tournament of Champions, looked Mitchell back to third and then threw to first for the first out of the inning. It brought pitcher Trevor Wood to the plate and he hit a hard ball back towards the middle that somehow was barehanded by Featherstone who threw to first for the second out and Mitchell was still stuck at third. After Paziuk drew a walk to load the bases, Poldervaart who was 2-3 on the night came to the plate. Featherstone was able to strike him out and preserve the victory for Stittsville temporarily vaulting them into first place in the league standings.

Wood (3-2) pitched well for Carp in the loss, giving up three runs, two earned, on five hits, he walked one and struck out six. Carp made one error and Stittsville left three men on. For the 56ers, Featherstone went the distance giving up two runs, one earned on four hits, he walked five and struck out nine. Stittsville made four errors and Carp left nine runners on base.

At the plate, Dan Jessiman was 1-3 with a home run, an RBI and a run scored. Oliver was 2-3 with a run scored, Featherstone was 1-3 with a run scored and Power was 1-2 with an RBI. For Carp, Poldervaart was 2-4 with an RBI, Eric Rosenquist was 1-2 with a walk and Brooks Paziuk was 0-2 with two walks and a run scored and Wood was 0-1 with a walk, reached on a fielder's choice, reached on an error and scored a run.

With the loss, Stittsville took over first place in the GOFL with 27 point and Carp and Ottawa Team Easton Thunder remained tied for second with 26 points each and an important match up on Thursday night in Stittsville.