Eastern Ontario Fastball Blog

A blog dedicated to news about the Greater Ottawa Fastball League and other happenings in the world of fastball / fastpitch softball in eastern Ontario and western Quebec, with occasional stories featuring Mrs Fitzroy Fastball, Fitzroy Fastball Junior and the Caveman. If you have info to send on, send me an email at fastball[at]fitzroyharbour.com. Follow @fitzroyfastball on Twitter.

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Monday, July 12, 2010

AuSable Tournament - some info from Pugs

from Pugger Williams

Going from memory Carp and Barrhaven both went 2-2 in the same division but Barrhaven advanced on run differential.

Barrhaven won Friday night over local team Northline Utilities 4-2. Paul Ceppi threw a 3 hitter with 13K's. Great game from Cepp! Jason Smith of Williamsburg took the loss for Northline.

Carp lost 4-1 to Donnacona in its opener Saturday morning. I believe Frank Cox threw for Carp and don't know who threw for Donnacona as a late night at 20 Main didn't have me at the park till around 11 a.m.

Then Carp beat Barrhaven 3-0 with Dan Konkle getting the win with relief from Neil Cooke. Barrhaven had its chances with runners at 2nd and third one time and bases loaded in the 5th with nobody out. That's when Cookie entered the game and got the Victory out of the jam. I believe Steve McGillis had the loss for Barrhaven. Steve plays in the Cornwall league.

In its second game of the day Barrhaven beat Razzano's Trucking of Johnstown, NY 9-2 I think. Razzano's has been in the Au Sable final eight of the last 12 years and usually had Greg Garrity or a similar top notch hurler throwing for them. But not this year. Larry Razzano had to reach back in time and call upon Freddie Ganou who I believe is from Montreal. Freddie was the tournament Top Pitcher in.....wait for it... 1980! I was 18 at the time and in my second year of umpiring fastball! I'd put Freddie at 62 or 63 today! I believe Trevor Leahy had the win for Barrhaven in this one. Steve McGillis had a home run for Bartrhaven and I think Brian O'Neill (also from Cornwall) hit a shot but I could be wrong on that one. A lot of beer consumed by that time. I believe Greg Perrin and I each finished off a six pack in that game.

I left before Carp's last game Saturday night but on Sunday morning the report I had from Al Read was that it was a 1-0 win in the bottom of the 6th with Tony MacDonald 'driving' in the winning run as Aaron Amo scored from 2nd (can't recall how Aaron ended up at 2nd). Okay, okay.....it was a check swing that apparently barely got between the 1st and 2nd basemen. Sorry Tony. Didn't mean to steal your thunder. But hey still an exciting walk off RBI to end the game. Not sure about WP and LP for that game.

Watched most of the Carp vs. Razzanos game on Sunday morning on Diamond 2. Neil Cooke pitching for Carp and didn't know who the guy was for Razzano's. Carp had chances but ran themselves out of the game on a couple of odd plays. In about the 3rd or 4th with Aaron Amo on 2nd, Kevin McGuire hit a hard shot that Aaron would have easily scored on. But Gooey scorched the ball so hard Aaron had no time to get out of the way and when it hit him he was out on a Runner Intereference call. Then a couple innings later with one out Carp had runners on 2nd (Terry Redden) and 1st (Eric Colvin). EC was on 1st via a 'generous' call but hey, sometimes you need a break and it looked as if Carp had the break it needed. With Aaron Amo at the plate and a 1-1 or 2-1 count...something like that, it appeared that Terry Redden tried a delayed steal of third and was tagged out. Then EC trying to keep a runner in scoring position broke for second and was also tagged out for the third out of the inning and the end of the rally. Lesson to all Canadian teams. Uhhhh....ummmmm....no matter how these American teams look in crappy t-shirts, bad socks and bad pants, they play great defense. All these kids have played baseball most of their lives and they can "d" it up. They also don't sit with a bat on their shoulder. But I digress. After six complete it was 0-0. Cookie was throwing a great game and a little lack of patience at the plate and some unbridled youthful enthusiasm had no runs up for Carp. Tournament rules allowed for one extra inning using the International Tie-breaker rule. Otherwise if still tied after 7 it would go in the standings as a tie. In the top of the 7th, Todd Storms started at 2nd for Carp with Tony Mac leading off. Tony flew out first pitch swinging and the Dan Konkle in to pinch hit, struck out and Shawn Simzer flew out to end the top of the 7th and now Carp had to play for the tie. Razzanos first bstter laid down a great bunt that was tough to field and to make the throw from just in front of the plate and catch at first. With runners now on the corners a bit of a slap hit ended up being a bleeder that landed in shallow right field and the runner from 3rd scored to end the game 1-0 for Razzanos.

Carp still had a chance to get through to the playoffs but needed Barrhaven to lose by six runs in its game against Donnacona. Barrhaven was up early 1-0. Paul Ceppi was throwing for Barrhaven. I don't think Frankie LeClair was throwing in this one since I recall him coming in to PH at one point and he drew a walk. Anyway Donnacona came back to win but it wasn't by more than six so Barrhaven advanced to the semis vs the Quebec Jrs.

Cepp started again for Barrhaven but when the score was I believe 5-0 after two Trevor Leahy came in in relief. I believe this ended as an 8-1 mercy after five for the Quebec Jrs. At this point I said my goodbyes and told the locals I would see them in 363 days. So I don't know what happened in the second semi between Knoxville PA/ON and Donnacona and subsequently which of those two teams would play the Quebec Jrs. in the finals. (Ed note: Donnacona beat the Quebec Jrs in the finals).

If you are a fastball fan or player get to this tournament! Soon! Its only a three hour and a bit drive from Ottawa. Next year is the 49th year of the tourney and I'm hoping they do something interesting, unique and fun for the 50th in 2012. You can drink anywhere you want in the park and bring your own. If you don't bring your own, pints are $2 at the beer booth. Cheeseburgers (mmmmm....Velveeta) are $3 and hot dogs are $1.50. And no Cookie....when they asked me what I wanted on my hamburger I did NOT say a hot dog.

20 Main is the place to go on Friday and Saturday night for a good post ballpark party for cheap drinks. Lots of great places to stay in Wilmington, Jay or Keesville. I was at the Holiday in Wilmington this year and it was $70 for a double room and included breakfast. Its supposed to be anything under $5.95 off the breakfast menu but they don't care. My brekkie would have been way more than $5.95 and when I went to pay the difference the server just said 'Don't worry all guest breakfasts are included. Okay Cookie....at that point I asked her if I could have two more of the same to go!

Always a great time in AuSable and as the locals say, "It never rains in Happy Valley."

Hope to make it out the next two years. I'll be 50 when the tourney turns 50.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

My brother Andrew Bombard was the pitcher from Razzano's in the game on Sunday morning. All the guys on the team were local! Glad you had a great time and see everyone next year!
-Lindsey Bombard

8:02 pm  
Blogger fitzroyfastball said...

Razzano’s pitcher against Carp on Sunday was 21 year old Andrew Bombard pitching the third tournament game of his life. His first was in last year’s tourney when he was pressed in the breach for Northline and Carp beat him 4-0.His second was Saturday, beating Northline 3-2. Thank Pugger for the kind words about the kids. They play with passion. We started picking up Pugger’s and Peck’s beer can’s and returning them for cash and we think we got a fund started so next year we might be able to afford some classier t shirts. That is if we don’t drink it up first. Young kids drink a lot too. Thanks to all the teams from Ontario for coming to AuSable Forks every year. We love having you here.

Best regards
Scott Bombard, manager of Razzano’s

10:07 am  

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