Ottawa U GeeGees Women's Fastball Week 3 - four wins

Saturday 2pm: Ottawa 5 McMaster 3
Saturday 4pm: Ottawa 6 McMaster 0
Sunday 12pm: Ottawa 7 Brock 3
Sunday 2pm: Ottawa 2 Brock 1

Friday night the Gee-Gees headed to Niagara Falls to play a doubleheader against Mcmaster Marauders. After an exciting night at the hotel; getting barely any sleep, the girls won both games against Mcmaster. The first game was won by the Gee-Gees in the final inning of play with a clutch hit by Jean Cardona right field to cash in three runs to secure the win. Jill Taylor pitched an incredible game to keep the Marauders from a comeback win. The second game the Gee Gees came out strong on the bats and were able to get a lead early and hold the lead while also keeping McMaster off the scoreboard with beautiful pitching from Jean Cardona.

The Gee Gees started off Sunday with a win against the Brock Badgers. The game was close until the ladies got on the bats in the final inning to crush any hopes of a comeback for their opponents. The second game was taken into extra innings; playing international tie breaker. It only took one inning for the ladies to cash in a winning run on an RBI by Jean Cardona to hit Taylor Rogalsky in for the win. Defence and offence were strong throughout the weekend which allowed the ladies to proceed home with four wins under their belts.

Guzzlers "Threepeat", win Blackburn Men's Fastball League deciding game 5

from Nick Bowman

Guzzlers crowned BMFL playoff champs with a 3 games to 2 series victory over the Knights

Game 5 - Guzzlers 8 Knights 3

WP: Andy Barber (5 innings pitched, 11 ks)
Jeff Barber (2 innings pitched, 5 ks)
LP: Jamie Blakely (4 innings pitched and 7ks)
Ryan Chatten (3 innings pitched and 6ks)
HR: Andy Barber (Guzzlers)

In the top of the 1st inning, Kevin Schonfield would reach first on an error. Jeff Barber would walk. Derek Barber would advance to first on an error scoring Schonfield. Tsonos would proceed to single scoring both Jeff and Derek Barber to make it 3-0 Guzzlers.

The Knights would threaten in the bottom of the 2nd with Guy Millette on third, but Andy Barber would strikeout Tyler Cox.

In the top of the 3rd, Kevin Schonfield would walk and would score on a Jeff Barber double. After advancing to third on a pass ball, Jeff Barber would score on an error t0 make it 5-0.

In the top of the 4th, Mike Napper would walk. Jeff Eastman, running for Napper, would advance to third on a Rick Thompson bunt single. Eastman would score on a Brandon Spears rbi to make it 6-0.

In the bottom of the 4th, the Knights again would threaten by loading up the bases with only 1 out. Mike Brownhill would pop up for an infield fly and Guy Millette would strikeout.

In the top of the 5th, Ryan Chatten came in to pitch. Kevin Schonfield doubled and once again, he scored on a Jeff Barber double to make it 7-0. Chatten would settle down striking out both Derek Barber and Steve Tsonos. The Knights would get on the board in the bottom of the 5th. TC walked and Antoine Montpetit was hit by a pitch. Later, Ryan Chatten would single to score Tyler Cox. With one out, Brett Dugan singled to score Montpetit and move Chatten to third. Gerry Sancartier would proceed to pop up to center fielder Jeff Eastman who was able to throw Chatten out at home. The inning ended with the Guzzlers up 7-2.

In the top of the 6th, the Guzzlers added another with an Andy Barber homerun. During the bottom half of the sixth, Jeff Barber came in to pitch and the Knights would add a run on an error to make it 8-3.

In the bottom of the 7th, Tyler Cox singled and advanced on a passed ball. However, Jeff was able to strikeout the next 3 batters to seal the 8-3 victory for the Guzzlers. For the third straight year, the Guzzlers are repeating as playoff champs. Congratulations Guzzlers!

Bed time for the Caveman

Caveman, getting ready for bed: "It might get cold tonight, Daddy. Get me my toupee!"

Me: "Your what?"

Caveman: "My toupee! To keep me warm in bed."

Me: "Ah yes, your duvet. Will do."

Glen Cairn Men's Fastball League Round 2

from http://www.eteamz.com/gcmfl/

Round 2 features (C1) Don Cherry's vs (G2) Laurysen Kitchens and (G1) Mattamy Homes vs (C2) D'Arcy McGee's.

Game 1 Wed 28-Sep 6:30 Don Cherry's vs Laurysen Kitchens
Game 2 Mon 3-Oct 8:30 Laurysen Kitchens vs Don Cherry's
(if necessary) Game 3 Wed 5-Oct 6:30 Don Cherry's vs Laurysen Kitchens

Game 1 Wed 28-Sep 8:30 Mattamy Homes vs D'Arcy McGee's
Game 2 Mon 3-Oct 6:30 D'Arcy McGee's vs Mattamy Homes
(if necessary) Game 3 Wed 5-Oct 8:30 Mattamy Homes vs D'Arcy McGee's

Taggart's Welding beat ASAP Print Management in the "Beer Cup" consolation round.

Blackburn finals going to Game 5

from BMFL.ca

Game 4 - 4-3 Guzzlers over Knights in 8 innings

WP: Jeff Barber (11 ks)
LP: Jamie Blakely (5ks)
HR: Steve Tsonos (Guzzlers)

In the bottom of the first inning, Steve Tsonos hit a homerun to put the Guzzlers up 1-0. With solid pitching from Jeff Barber and Jamie Blakely, the game remained that way until the top of the 7th. Gerry Sancartier would single to tie the game. Blakely was able to shut the Guzzlers down in the bottom of the 7th, forcing extra innings. In the top of the 8th, with Jamie Blakely starting at second base, Derek Martin reached first and Blakely moved the third. After Jeff would retire Mike Brownhill, Matt Edwards hit a 2-rbi double to the fence to lead the Knights to a 3-1 game. Barber would then retire Guy Millette and Tyler Cox. In the bottom of the 8th, for the Guzzlers, pitcher Jeff Barber was starting at second base. Steve Tsonos singled and moved Jeff up to third. Blakely would then strikeout Derek Barber and his brother Andy would walk. With the bases loaded, Mike Napper grounded out to first but Jeff Barber was able to score to make the game 3-2 with 2 outs. Blakely would proceed to intentionally walk Jeff Eastman and veteran Rick Thompson came to the plate. Rick Thompson would single up the middle to bring in Steve Tsonos and Andy Barber to lead the Guzzlers to a 4-3 win. With a recent change in the playoff format, the BMFL finals are going to game 5 for the first time in modern history on Tuesday, September 27th at 7 pm at the diamond behind the Blackburn arena.

Knights win BMFL final game #3

The Knights took a 2 games to 1 series lead over the Guzzlers in the finals with a 6-5 win in eight innings. Game 4 is Sunday night at 7pm.

Cobourg Murphy's Windmillers win Peterborough League

An update on the Peterborough League from Fastpitch West.

UOttawa GeeGees Week 2

Friday 5pm Ottawa 9 Carleton 0
Friday 7pm Ottawa 16 Carleton 1
Saturday 2pm Laurier 4 Ottawa 3
Saturday 4pm Laurier 6 Ottawa 3
Sunday 12pm Ottawa 7 Waterloo 3
Sunday 2pm Waterloo 7 Ottawa 6

The Gee-Gee Women’s fastball team finished an exhausting weekend of six games with a 3-3 record facing some of their strongest competition. Friday night the Gee-Gee’s played the Carleton Ravens for a double header out in Orleans. To raise awareness for Mental Health, the Gee-Gee squad wore purple shirts for both games. The Gee-Gees came out strong to defeat the Ravens in five innings of play; with a final score of 9-0. Jill Taylor started the game; however, suffered an injury after the first pitch which resulted in Jean Cardona having to enter the game in the second inning. Gee-Gees came out strong on the bats with another win to finish off the night with two wins. Final score of the second game was 16-1.

Early Saturday morning the ladies ran a camp for kids and worked on improving their softball skills. Following the sports camp, the Gee-Gees hosted Laurier in Orleans for a double header. These two games concluded in frustrating losses for the ladies.

After recovering for the night the Gee-Gees hosted Waterloo for their two concluding games of the weekend. With a strong start to finish, the ladies were able to hold Waterloo’s talented batters to only 3 runs. All bats were on fire scoring 7 runs which allowed them to walk off with the win. The second game was a very close game which resulted in a loss for the ladies but overall a very well played game of ball. Defence and offence are beginning to come together for the Gee-Gees which is allowing for only a bright season ahead and an even stronger playoff finish.

Note as well this article from the UOttawa newspaper.

Blackburn league final series tied at 1 game each

from Derek Barber

BMFL Finals Game 2 - Knights 3 Guzzlers 2
WP: Jamie Blakely
LP: Jeff Barber

The Knights were able to battle back from being down a run twice and pulled away with the game winning run in the top of the 5th. This game was close from start to finish as both pitchers threw very well. Expect much of the same throughout the remainder of the series. The series is now tied 1-1 as game 3 goes Thursday September 22nd at 7:00 pm behind the Blackburn arena.

Update on Chris Hall

from Kevin Chevrier

Chris Hall, who has played some games with Kars Aces in the last 2 years, as well as with the Roebuck/Spencerville group, was in a very bad car accident last Saturday night, and remains in a coma in Kingston hospital.

Hopefully Chris will be able to make a recovery from this very serious accident. Info here from the Brockville newspaper.

Guzzlers take Game 1 of Blackburn Final

from Derek Barber

Game 1 - 10-0 Guzzlers over Knights

WP: Andy Barber
LP: Ryan Chatten
HR: Jeff Barber (Guzzlers)

The Guzzlers scored 1 in the first and 5 in the second as they held on for the game one win. Guzzlers got some keys hits from Brandon Spears and Tom Lariviere who helped stake the Guzzlers to 1-0 series lead in the best of 5 final. Look for the Knights to bounce back with a strong game 2 as they did not lose back to back games all season.

Blackburn league finals set

from Nick Bowman

Here is a preview of the 2011 BMFL finals:

2011 BMFL finals

#1 Knights vs #2 Guzzlers

Sunday, September 18 at 7:00 PM
Tuesday, September 20 at 7:00 PM
Thursday, September 22 at 7:00 PM

For the fourth straight year, the finals will see the number one ranked Knights square off against the number two ranked Guzzlers in this best of 5 series. The Knights advanced to the finals by defeating Good Ol' Boys 5-3 and 13-7. Jamie Blakely picked up both wins in the series. In game 1 of the series, Derek Martin hit a grand slam to seal the victory and in game 2, Tyler Cox hit 2 homeruns and had 7 RBIs to lead the Knights to victory. During the series, Brett Duggan was on a hot streak going 8 for 9.

The Guzzlers advanced to the finals by defeating Exit A’s 11-4 and 9-0. In game 1 of the series, Andy Barber picked up the win throwing 18 strikeouts. His only blemish was a grand slam by Jordan Adams. Offensively, Derek Barber hit 2 homeruns and Steve Tsonos hit 1 homerun. In game 2, Jeff Barber picked up the win and the Guzzlers got help offensively from Tom Larivière who hit a 3-run homerun.

The Knights, regular season champions, won the season series over the defending champions, the Guzzlers, winning 5-1 and 4-3 and lost a 3-0 game. Both teams averaged less than 4 runs against per game in the regular season. Will the finals be another defensive battle or will the offence over power the pitchers? Swing by the diamond at the Blackburn arena to find out!

Stittsville Bantam Selects win provincials

from the EMC News

The Stittsville Major Bantam softball team recently won silver in provincial championships held in Toronto. Pictured are (front row, left to right) Luke Moore, Luc d'Entrement, John Assad, Spencer Lee, Braden McGinnis, James Mullan, (back row, left to right) coach Paul d'Entrement, Jonathan Egilo, Evan Belshaw, Sam Marks, Matt Gaines, Travis Drew, coach Andrew Mullan and coach Dean Lee.EMC Sports - Softball is alive and well in Stittsville with two Bantam Select teams participating in the provincial championship recently held in Toronto.

The Bantam Major Select Team, comprised of boys born in 1995, made it to the provincial final. The Major Bantam team defeated Georgian Bay by a score of 6-3 and Woodbridge by a score of 23-1 in the round-robin play before defeating Unionville 5 3 in the semi-final.

The provincial final was a thrilling rematch with Georgian Bay and featured some excellent softball. The Majors were rewarded for their day's effort with the silver medal following a hard fought 6-5 loss in the provincial final. Congratulations go out to the Major's pitcher Luc d'Entrement, who was awarded tournament MVP honours. The coaches, Dean Lee, Paul d'Entrement and Andrew Mullan, were extremely pleased with the hard work, hitting and fielding displayed by the team during the provincial tournament. The team consisted of Sam Marks, Evan Belshaw, Travis Drew, Luc d'Entrement, James Mullan, Spencer Lee, Braden McGinnis, Matt Gaines, John Assad, Jonathan Egilo and Luke Moore.

The Bantam Minor Select Team, comprised of boys and girls born from 1995-97, gained a tremendous amount of experience from the provincial tournament. The Minor Bantams' first game against St. Catherine's featured a come from behind 13-11 win after falling behind early in the game. In their second game, the Minor Bantams played well, but couldn't maintain their lead and were defeated by a strong Unionville team. They played hard in the Wild card game but were held to a single run against the team from Lyn.

The coaches, Craig Pavia and Steve Halse, were especially proud of the dedication and effort demonstrated by the Minor Bantam team this summer.

The team consisted of Kyle Tapp, Mathew Lee, Brad Cotton, Matt Pavia, Zach Pugsley, Alec Moore, Pascal Snow, Rachel McGinnis, Jamie Steenbakkers, Riley Walsh and Brady Halse.

U Ottawa Women's Softball and DIFD

The University of Ottawa Women’s Softball team is dedicating their games from September 16-18 to the DIFD (Do it for Daron) organization in Ottawa. DIFD is named for Daron Richardson, a 14 year old girl in Ottawa who took her own life on November 12th 2010. The organization raises money to help remove the stigma from mental illness and help young people who suffer in silence.

The team is playing 3 sets of double-headers that weekend against Carleton, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo. The team will wear special purple uniforms for each of the games.

The games will be played at Pierre Rocque Park in Orleans.

Friday vs Carleton 7 and 9

Saturday vs Laurier 2 and 4

Sunday vs Waterloo 12 and 2

Raising awareness and removing the stigma of mental health are critical issues facing Canada’s youth.

Suicide is among the leading causes of death in 15-24 year old Canadians, second only to accidents;
42% of youth say they would feel uncomfortable revealing they had a mental illness;
1 in 5 youth are affected by mental illness, but only 1 in 6 receive treatment or service;
In Canada, there are 3.2 million youth between the ages of 12-19 who are at risk for developing depression;
Canada loses close to 200 children and youth to suicide every year
With 1 in 5 Canadians developing Mental Health issues in their teenage years, it is incumbent on the other 4 in 5 to create a culture for them to discuss their issues. By raising awareness, the UOttawa Softball team is helping create that culture.

In addition, the team is hosting their 6th annual "Bridge to the Future Clinic" for minor athletes from 10-12 on Saturday morning.

EMC Coverage of the FWS

Jeff Maguire's article in the EMC newspaper chain on the GOFL Final Weekend Showdown.

Memories of Elkland, 2011

A trip to the Elkland Labour Day Durk Sherman Classic wouldn't be complete without the annual tradition, the "Memories of Elkland" post. Lots of guys tell me they enjoy this posting every year and several have asked "when is it coming?" No pressure, guys.

Anyway, here it is, all the fastball fun at Elkland. As always, where necessary names have been omitted to protect the guilty and some stories edited out all together. (There was a great Elkland story being told at the beer garden in Quyon last weekend, but no way that one makes the blog, a tad too raunchy.)

The competition: This year's tournament once again had 15 teams, same as last year. A few teams gone (bye bye RF Linemen) a few new teams added (hello NY Bombers). There were four, count 'em FOUR, GOFL teams attending, meaning over half the league's players were in Elkland for the weekend. This prompted one guy to remark that the Saturday night at the Moose could have been renamed the "GOFL Banquet". Overall I think the competition was better than some previous years. Pitchers there included Jeremy Manley, Bryan Newton, Sean Kelly, Bill Hillhouse, Steve Price, Kyle Linton, and Caleb Keeshig.

The big change this year was three game guarantee format instead of the traditional double knockout. An interesting idea that seemed to go over OK. Unfortunately things were rained out on the Monday with six teams remaining. From what I heard, the prize money was allocated fairly as could be given the circumstances.

Three of the teams remaining were from the GOFL, so a good showing - except for WC Electric. But as one Electric player put it "It's hard to party like a rock star and do well in the two 10am games." True, dat.

The hosts: Billy & Grant Sherman and the guys in Elkland do things right. Great guys that love fastball, pints, and go out of their way to be good hosts. Simply put, good people that would fit in the Ottawa Valley except for the funny way they talk.

The ESA guys work hard, but still find time to have fun in the process. Word is that ESA team might make the trek to the Gil Read Tournament next year to acknowledge the GOFL contingent that makes the trip every year down their way. It would be great to see their crew up here in July 2012.

The venue: I've said every year and I'll blog it again - the venue is most excellent for fastpitch softball. The old time feel of the place is hard to duplicate. The covered stands, the advertising boards in the outfield, the concessions - really great spot that is unique for fastball.

The fields were in good shape. The Elkland Softball Association complex uses tarps to help keep the infields in tiptop form over night. Here's a tip - help the ESA boys put the tarps on at the end of the night and you get free beer! 10 guys work for 10 minutes for 20 pints? Sign us up.

And the ESA gang certainly have embraced the spirit of continuous improvement. Last year it was the memorabilia room. This year, they put up a nice new fence to keep good neighbourly relations. (Sorry about the guys climbing over it on Friday night after the Moose, Bill - it seemed like a good idea at the time.)

As well, there was a new "luxury box" built over third base dugout on the main diamond which offered an excellent perspective to watch a game. There was a 'premium charge' to get in the box, but help with a few tarps and voila, you get a free seat in the luxury area. We watched the Sunday night match up between Kars and Knoxville in the box - a great game and a great spot to heckle. And heckle we did! However our heckling got a little quiet when Kars' pitcher Brad Porter took a one hopper off the face. Whoops. Looked like he was actually out for bit but eventually he seemed to be OK. He got up, Dave Tubman was catching and he says "Need a warm up Porter?", Brad says "no". Next thing you know, Porter chucks in a warm up pitch as hard as he can, much to Tubby's surprise! Anyway, he recovered quickly and started pitching as hard as anyone had seen in a long time to finish the inning and get Kars through to Monday.

Another great thing about the venue is the announcer on the main diamond: Ugo Barbano. He announces every game on Field 1 from start of the tourney to the finish. This guy takes his job seriously - I mean his Facebook profile has a photo of him in the Elkland announcer's booth! The place wouldn't be the same without his voice with that mix of whisky and Marlboros, announcing each batter. And he knows his players. First time West Carleton's #51 is at the plate, he's announced as "Mad Dog Murrrrrrrphy!" I run into Ugo at the Moose, he asks how Bud is doing in Newfoundland.

Thought experiment for those of you that have heard Ugo before: imagine his voice on your in-vehicle GPS - "Turn right in half a miiiiiile arrrgh". PERFECT.

The food: The chicken from the stadium "pit" was once again excellent and damn near worth the drive itself. Apparently in a good year, they sell over a 1000 chicken dinners on the weekend! (This year would have been fewer due to Monday's rainout.) Lots of hard work and MMMM good. The stadium also other fare like tasty sausages, the notorious nacho cheese, French fries, burgs and funnel cake.

I also made a discovery on the weekend. Say you are back in the evening from the stadium to the campsite after a few pints and your chicken lunch is long digested. You ask the lads anything to eat? Some guys have ordered the most excellent sheet from Pizza Barn and another accomodating dad of three guys on your team has fresh burgers off the grill. What to do? I'll tell you want to do - put that hamburger patty between the two square slices of pizza. Oh my that's good eating. Has anyone patented that yet?

Another food discovery was the Moose breakfast. Now I had heard of this before but never went. It's a breakfast... but not in the morning. You have finished your evening at the Moose, it's about 2:30am or so and you need a snack. Where do you go? Why, you go downstairs at the Moose to eat the special breakfast. Imagine, middle of the night, huge line up of drunken ball players and 15 local church ladies serving breakfast. Honestly, it was so good the next day I wasn't sure if I had dreamed it all or not. (I hadn't.) "You want biscuits and gravy with that, hon?" "Why yes, yes I do.....even though I have no idea what that is." It looks like a tea biscuit with mushroom soup with bits of sausage in it; so a little rude looking, but man it hits the spot after 14 Yeunglings.

Jesse is all grown up: Loyal blog readers will know that WC Electric has had the same bat boy since we first went down there in 2007. Sure enough Jesse met us there again this year and has now graduated from bat boy to roster player, even though he didn't actually get in to play. Apparently despite his plans in 2010 they wouldn't let him in the US Army (apparently they don't let EVERYONE in!) so he was back at Elkland High, trying to finish things off. Apparently this year's West Carleton Electric team picture with Jesse will be in his Grade 12 yearbook as we posed for "senior photos" with him.

Accomodations: I know some of the other local teams stayed in Corning, NY and thought that was a pretty good spot. Despite not being a camping-type person, we stayed once again in the ESA campground at the ballpark. Nice spot, close to everything and free. We all got there early to set up the campers and tents, and claimed a good spot for our group.

With help from Jesse, we had our fire pit all set up and ready to go. One of the guys who works in a home improvement store thoughtfully brought along some cuttings from the lumber yard - some nice two foot lengths of 1 x 6. Unfortunately some guys thought that karate was in order - note to self, DO NOT attempt to use your forehead to break through pine boards no matter how good an idea it seems at the time to split kindling in that manner.

Also interesting on Saturday morning was seeing one GOFLer from another team camped out under a light pole. Just lying on the ground, no tent, covered with an old ratty blanket and a nice layer of dew. Apparently he had been feuding the night before with a teammate (OK his brother) and was kicked out of the tent. Things appeared to be patched up the next day as they were spotted laughing together in the stands at the stadium.

The Moose: The Moose was again a great place to get the full Elkland experience on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. The drinks are still cheap, the music is still the same and faces look pretty familiar most nights, but a great spot to catch up with old friends, make new ones and generally have a good time. And of course for those so inclined there were some local lovelies looking to meet visiting ballplayers (refer to story mentioned in introduction which will not be blogged here).

On Saturday night, one WC player decided it would be a good idea to wear a red camping headlight into the Moose. Slide it down over one eye, add in the "Dadadada do, dadada do" theme music and there you go - the Moose Terminator. People were stopping him in the stands on Sunday asking him "Are you that Terminator guy from the Moose?"

Our team only suffered one injury on the weekend, and perhaps not surprisingly it didn't happen on the field, it was of course, post-Moose. Great night at the bar, you don't want it to end, sitting around with the guys, bonfire is going, a few tunes on the boom box, a couple of drinks to finish things off. And what's a guy want to do? Well, you gotta dance right? How getting up and doing a Cooler Dance? BAD IDEA. Big time wipe out, scraped down the leg, swollen ankle. Ladies and gentlemen, if we have learned anything from that weekend, it's that Cooler Dancing is dangerous.

The conclusion: Good time as always in Elkland, well organized tournament in a mint venue, good competition and great spirit. Once again I'm counting the days until next year, which will be the 60th anniversary of the tournament, and based on reports of the 50th anniversary, the folks in Elkland will do it up right. Put it on your calendar now, August 31 - September 3, 2012.

Fitzroy Harbour Men's Fastball League wraps up

The eight-team Fitzroy Harbour Men's Fastball League concluded their playoffs on Wednesday night with a championship game played in front of a crowd of about 50 people.

This season the league opted for a new playoff format - playing a double knockout tournament spread out over 5 weeks.

The championship game was won by Ryley Burns' Green Team, which went through the playoff tournament undefeated at 4-0, beating the Ottawa Valley Heat Midget team in the final by a score of 11-4. Spencer Campbell, who also hit a home run to help his cause and Kurt Raycroft combined to throw for the green squad. Jeff Campbell took the loss for the midgets who were missing Adam Rueckwald from the pitching circle as he was away at school.

The Fitzroy league plays Wednesday nights and the occassional Sunday night at the Fitzroy Harbour Community Centre.

U Ottawa women's fastpitch, week one

from Scott Searle

The UOttawa Women's Gee-Gees opened their season at home against defending Ontario Bronze medallists Windsor Lancers and Ontario Champions UWO Mustangs. The team is very grateful for the support from the GOFL and the Quyon Flyers for allowing them to piggyback on the Showdown weekend.

Catch the Gee-Gees this weekend in Orleans at Pierre Rocque Park. They play a double-header vs Carleton at 7 and 9 Friday night, a double-header against the Laurier Golden-Hawks at 2 and 4 on Saturday and finally a double-header against the Waterloo Warriors at 12 and 2 on Sunday.

The team will also host a free clinic for minor athletes from 10-12 on Saturday morning at Pierre Rocque Park.

September 10th

Game 1: Ottawa 4 vs. Windsor 3 (Quyon)

The University of Ottawa had a very promising start to their season this past weekend. Starting pitcher Jean Cardona threw an impressive first half of the game for the GeeGees and with the help of some outstanding defensive plays, highlighted by a diving catch in left field by Jacqui Timperio, Ottawa held the lead against Windsor for the majority of the game. Michelle Miller came in for relief in the 5th inning and kept the lead until later in the game when Windsor came ahead by a run. This did not discourage the GeeGees as in the bottom of the 7th inning with runners on, Taylor Rogalsky came up with a game-winning hit to put the GeeGees ahead of Windsor for the win.

Game 2: Ottawa 2 vs. Windsor 9 (Quyon)

The second game of the day was started off with a bang as Grace Longergan homered in the top of the first to put Ottawa on top early. The game saw a great showing for starting pitcher Michelle Miller until the middle innings where Windsor seemed to find their hitting groove and unfortunately the game was called early at a score of 9-2 for Windsor.

September 11th

Game 1: Ottawa 2 vs. Western 9 (Orleans)

The first of the double-header against Western on Sunday showed a strong debut from veteran pitcher Jill Taylor who kept the Mustangs at bay until the middle innings where their strong hits began to find gaps in the GeeGees defence. This paired with some unfortunate fielding turns on the GeeGees lead to the game being called early, with Western taking the win.

Game 2: Ottawa 3 vs. Western 9 (Orleans)

Jean Cardona visited the mound for the second time this past weekend and also for the second time kept a close game going against the opposing team. Ottawa also seemed to find their bats a bit better in the second game against Western and both teams played fairly evenly until Western began to pull away towards the end of the game as their hits seemed to have eyes right into the gaps in Ottawa’s defence. Unfortunately the GeeGees were not able to recover soon enough to defeat Western and the win went to Western once again.

Although the GeeGees went 1 and 3 this weekend all games showed promise and the outlook on the season seems to be a positive one!

Trend Arlington playoff update

from Wynn Fenwick

Trend Arlington Men's Fastball League elimination round of the playoffs began 31 August with Ed Taylor's Shamrocks facing PJ Quigleys and GoodFellow Cleaners facing Durabuilt Construction. Each series is a best of three.

Game one of the PJ's / Shamrocks series saw PJ's using last-bat to win a wild game 11-10 in which the lead changed in every inning except the first and the last. Kevin Wilson (with Nick Norton) defeated JD Robb with Ivan Taylor relieving him, backstopped by Mike Gellner. Game Two saw PJ's win the series with a 4-2 win, Adam Smith going the distance for PJ's and Ivan Taylor for the Shamrocks. PJ Quigley's advances to the best-of-five final which begins Wed 21 September 2011 at 8:30pm

In series B, the first game saw Gord Flannery and Durabuilt Construction shut down the powerful lineup from GoodFellow Cleaners 7-1. Rene Roncali took the loss. Dean McDonald caught Flannery's 4-hitter and Dave Simmons backstoped Roncali for GoodFellow's.

Due to scheduling challenges and unforseen circumstances, Game Two of series B goes tonight (Sept 14) at 6:30 and Monday 19 September at 8:30pm for game three if necessary.

Fitzroy Junior's future ambition

The Grade 4 English teacher has sent home an assignment - "tell us about yourself". So Fitzroy Junior has been diligently completing the questions, and I'm checking them out.

Who is your hero? "Wayne Gretzky" (He is the Great One.)

What is an important event in your life? "We finished second in our softball tournament this year." (We did come close on that one!)

What is your favourite food? "Muffin" (Don't mind the odd muffin myself.)

What is your favourite sport? "Hockey" (Fastball is better but still a good choice)

What is your favourite school activity? "Science" There are worse subjects.

What is your favourite song? "Killing in the Name Of" Now, that is a pretty wicked song. Not so sure it is appropriate for a 9 year old, but I guess he shares his dad's taste in music.

And finally...

When I grow up I want to be.... "HItLer" WHAT???! What the heck? You want to be what when you grow up?

"An NHLer, Daddy". Can't wait to see the teacher's reaction when he sees this.

GOFL History

It is once again time for the annual September fastball history lesson. The GOFL and its predecessor, the Kemptville Men's Fastball League have been around since 2000.

Here are the past winners/finalists, as well as the league teams.

2000 Dolco defeated Macton (3-0)
2001 Macton defeated D.T.I. (3-1)
2002 Lomor defeated Macton (3-0)
2003 Team Easton defeated Macton (1 game final, 8 innings)
2004 Team Easton defeated West Carleton Electric (3-1)
2005 Team Easton defeated Stittsville (3-1)
2006 Team Easton defeated Stittsville (3-1)
2007 Team Easton defeated West Carleton Electric (3-0)
2008 Stittsville defeated Team Easton (3-1)
2009 Stittsville defeated Quyon (3-2)
2010 Kars defeated Quyon (2-0, series shortened to best of three)
2011 Kars defeated Quyon (FWS tournament format)

2000 - 6 teams
Kemptville Macton Muckdogs
Kemptville D.T.I.
Stittsville 56ers
Kemptville Dolco Printing
Kemptville Thunder Juniors
Kanata Pirates Juniors

2001 - 5 teams
Kemptville Macton Muckdogs
Kemptville D.T.I.
Stittsville 56ers
Kemptville Dolco Printing
Kanata Pirates Juniors

2002 - 4 teams
Kemptville Macton Muckdogs
Kemptville Team Easton (formerly D.T.I.)
Stittsville 56ers
Kemptville Lomor Printers (formerly Dolco Printing)

2003 - 4 teams
Kemptville Macton Muckdogs
Kemptville Team Easton
Stittsville 56ers
Kemptville Lomor Printers

2004 - 5 teams
Kemptville Macton Muckdogs
Kanata Team Easton
Stittsville 56ers
Manotick Lomor Printers
Fitzroy Harbour West Carleton Electric

2005 - 4 teams
Kanata Team Easton
Stittsville 56ers
Manotick Lomor Printers
Fitzroy Harbour West Carleton Electric

2006 - 6 teams
Kanata Team Easton
Stittsville 56ers
Manotick Lomor Printers
Fitzroy Harbour West Carleton Electric
Carp I4C Victory
Ottawa Blitz

2007 - 8 teams
Ottawa Team Easton
Stittsville 56ers
Manotick Lomor Printers
Fitzroy Harbour West Carleton Electric
Carp I4C Victory
Ottawa Blitz
Quyon Combat Flyers
Orleans Gators

2008 - 9 teams
Ottawa Team Easton
Stittsville 56ers
Manotick Lomor Printers
Fitzroy Harbour West Carleton Electric
Carp I4C Victory
Ottawa Blitz
Quyon Combat Flyers
Orleans Gators
Greely DNTW Eagles

2009 - 9 teams
Ottawa Team Easton
Stittsville 56ers
Manotick Lomor Printers
Fitzroy Harbour West Carleton Electric
Carp I4C Victory
Ottawa Blitz
Quyon Combat Flyers
Orleans Gators
Greely DNTW Eagles

2010 - 8 teams
Kars Aces (formerly Team Easton)
Stittsville 56ers
Barrhaven Broadway Blues (formerly Lomor Printers)
Fitzroy Harbour West Carleton Electric
Carp I4C Victory
Ottawa Blitz
Quyon Combat Flyers
North Gower Marlboroughs (formerly Greely Eagles)

2011 - 7 teams
Kars Aces
Stittsville 56ers
Barrhaven Broadway Blues
Fitzroy Harbour West Carleton Electric
Carp I4C Victory
Ottawa Taylor's Blitz
Quyon Combat Flyers

Metro wins the McNab Braeside Senior Girls league

Dave "BamBam" Bahm of West Carleton Electric guided his girls team to a championship this season. 



FRONT: Jenn McNulty, Abby Bourgoin, Kelsey MacMillan BACK: Shauna McNulty, Bethany Rampton, Chloe Eady, Dave Bahm (Coach), Kennedy Payton, Kelsey Budarick, Kim Higginson, Allie Leckie.MISSING: Kevin Leckie (Coach)

McNab/Braeside Fastball Senior girls wrapped up their softball division inlate July. For the 3rd year in a row, Metro and McCrae's Electric met in the A Championship series. McCrae's took the lead but Metro tied it up in the bottom of the 7th inning. The crowd and intensity began to increase as McCrae's came out strong on the bats, taking a 6 run lead. Now heading into the bottom of the 8th inning, Metro's coach (Dave Bahm) collected his team reminding them that the game was not over yet and to stay relaxed.......the girls knew it was going to be a challenge for sure but were definitely up for it. Still down and now with 2 outs, it seemed the game was over, but the team still did not give up until the 7th/winning run crossed the plate, allowing Metro to take Game 1. Metro went on to win Game 2 of the series and the championships. They were now the League and Playoff Champions for 2011 for the Bantam/Midget Division.

Midget natties make big money

The Midget Nationals in Fredericton raised some big bucks for local fastball.

Wingers defeat Hitmen in New Edinburgh league playoff final

The four-team New Edinburgh Men's Fastball league wrapped things up with a season ending double knockout tournament this Saturday at Stanley Park in Ottawa.

The Wingers went undefeated to reach the final, while the Hitmen, having lost their first game had to come up the losers' side to reach the final.

The Hitmen won the first game, but lost the "if necessary" game 10-3 and the Wingers clinched the title. Jason Smith had the pitching win, while Art Henry threw all four games on Saturday for the Hitmen.

Navy Club wins the Cornwall League title

The Navy Club won the Cornwall Men's Fastball League championship three games to one over O'Neill Taping & Painting as per this article in the Cornwall newspaper.

Another year in the books

Hard to believe, but another fastball season is pretty much over. Once the GOFL season ends, blogging gets a little less frequent on this site, but I still have a few things to post:

- Yes, people, Memories of Elkland is coming. I just need to "clean it up" a bit.

- The GOFL All-Stars should be announced soon.

- I'll be posting playoff results from other leagues that are finishing up (feel free to send any results you may have from fastball[at]fitzroyharbour.com)

- I'll be trying to do a few more "Interviews" over the off season.

- Hopefully I will get some results from the University Women's fastball to post on the site. For those of you that attended the Final Weekend Showdown, I think the ladies showed us the high level of ball that they play.

- And of course, there will be the periodic Caveman and Fitzroy Fastball Junior story to post as well. In that spirit, I'll leave you with a couple from this weekend past when the lads accompanied me to the tournament in Quyon.

On the ferry ride over, there was a young guy collecting the money.
Caveman: "How old is that guy, Daddy?"
Me: "Oh he'd be about 18 I guess."
Caveman: "Is he old enough to drink beer?"
Me (chuckling): "Well, if he lives in Quebec he is."
Caveman: "Oh OK. What about in Ontario?"
Me: "You have to be 19 in Ontario."
Caveman: "What about Darien Lake, Daddy?" (We went to the amusement park in New York State in July.)
Me: "You have to be 21 in the States."
Caveman: "21! You could be TWENTY and not allowed to drink beer?"
Me: "That's right."
Caveman: "Wow. They're smart in Quebec, Daddy!"

Later in the afternoon, just before the boys were going back home with Mrs. Fastball, we spotted Joe McCleary, official Combat Sponsor of the lads. Mrs. Fastball asked if they had ever properly thanked Joe for the "sponsorship deal" and I wasn't sure they had. So Caveman and Fitzroy Junior and I went into the beer garden to thank Big Joe. Joe held out his hand for a high five, and Fitzroy Junior slapped him some skin. When Big Joe held out his hand for Caveman, he went right up close and gave Joe a big bear hug! (He does like that stick.) Joe claims that he scares most kids, but clearly he has a fan in the Caveman.

The Caveman also earned a new sponsor this weekend - thanks to umpire Dave Herbst for presenting him with a shirt with "Caveman" across the front from Cave Spring Vineyard.

Anyway, check back semi-regularly for updates as I'll be posting when I have any news.

Blackburn league semi-finals

from Nick Bowman

Semi-finals of the 2011 BMFL playoffs

#1 Knights vs #6 Good Ol' Boys

Sunday, September 11 at 6:00 PM
Tuesday, September 13 at 9:00 PM

After upsetting Gloucester Heating in the first round of the playoffs, the Good Ol' Boys are looking to upset the number one ranked team the Knights. GOB defeated Heating by a score of 14-13 and 5-4 with Andy Dunn picking up both wins. The Knights defeated the Rogues 10-4 and 7-2 with Jamie Blakely and Ryan Chatten each picking up a win. The key match up of the series will be the Knights pitching against the high powered offence of GOB. Also of note, the series is pitting team captains and frequent users of the BMFL forum Derek Martin and John Tremblay.

#2 Guzzlers vs #4 Exit A's

Sunday, September 11 at 8:00 PM
Tuesday, September 13 at 7:00 PM

The second series will see the Guzzlers square off against Exit A’s. The Guzzlers had some stellar pitching from Andy and Jeff Barber to defeat Goofellow Cleaner’s 16-0 and 7-2. Kevin Shonfield seems to have found the power which helped him pick up 8 homeruns in 2010 by hitting two homeruns in the series. Exit moved on the second round by defeating Mr. Electric 7-2 and 12-6. The A’s relied on some clutch defence and some timely hits to sweep the series. Jordan Adams was a force to be reckoned with at shortstop and at the plate. Will Lowe picked up both wins and A.J. Plant was also swinging a hot stick during the series.

GOFL Playoff Tournament - Kars wins GOFL championship - with details

The first ever Greater Ottawa Fastball League "final weekend showdown" tournament to determine the playoff champion was held on Saturday in Quyon. The weather was perfect, the crowds were good, the competition was excellent, the beer was cheap - pretty safe to say it was a success.

After Friday night wins by Quyon and Kars, the games on Saturday unfolded as follows:

Barrhaven Broadway Blues 5 Ottawa Blitz 4
The two defeated teams from Friday night played at 9am on Saturday to determine which team would be eliminated from the tournament first. The third seed Barrhaven team prevailed 5-4 over the fourth seed Blitz.

Paul Ceppi had the win for the Blues and Trevor Lahey came in to finish and earn the save. Shannon Borho took the loss, throwing a complete game for Ottawa.

Barrhaven scored three runs in the first and eventually got out to a 5-0 lead, aided by a Calvin Medynski home run and two RBIs by Trevor Power. However the Blitz didn't give up, bringing the score to 5-2 on back to back homer solo runs by Derick Bulley and Tony Searle. In the seventh, the Blitz made things interesting when Bulley hit another dinger, this time a two run shot to make it 5-4, but that's how it ended.

Kars Aces 8 Quyon Combat Flyers 1
The two undefeated teams played in the 11am game as Kars mercied Quyon, who had previously been undefeated in 2011 GOFL play.

Corey Costello had the win for Kars, while Joran Graham took the loss and had relief from Drew Hathway and Matt Greer.

Kars struck early, scoring five runs in the first inning including a Dave Tubman grand slam. After that the Aces never looked back. Kevin Chevrier and Kristian Knapp also had homeruns for the Aces, while Quyon's sole run was from a Joran Graham homer.

Quyon Combat Flyers 5 Barrhaven Broadway Blues 0
Next up at 1pm was the semi-final game between Quyon and Barrhaven to determine who would play Kars in the final. The Flyers shut out the Blues 5-0.

Drew Hathway had the win and Matt Greer saw some action in relief. Chad Hargrove took the loss and Paul Ceppi threw six innings in relief.

Quyon got two runs in the first on RBIs by Joran Graham and Drew Hathway. Later in the game, Matt Greer had a solo home run and Hathway had a two run shot.

Kars Aces 6 Quyon Combat Flyers 2 - GOFL Playoff Final
After an exciting game between the university women from UOttawa and Windsor U, which was won on a walk off single by the GeeGees 5-4, it was time for the GOFL final between the same two teams as 2010, the Kars Aces and the Quyon Combat Flyers.

With a 6-2 win, for the second year in a row, Kars are the GOFL Playoff Champions, earning the I4C Consulting Trophy. Quyon have lost the last three championship finals, including 2009 to Stittsville 56ers.

Kars pitchers combined for a two hitter as Steve Price had the win with Brad Porter seeing an inning in relief. Drew Hathway took the loss with Joran Graham facing one batter in relief.

Despite the score, the game was quite close until the sixth with both pitchers throwing very well.

After three and a half scoreless innings, Kristian Knapp broke the goose egg with a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth to put Kars out to a 1-0 lead.

Quyon answered back in the top of the sixth when after Joran Graham walked, Drew Hathway hit a two run shot to put the Flyers up 2-1.

Just when it looked like the "if necessary" game might be needed, Kars rallied for five in the bottom of the sixth to seal the win. After an out, Knapp and Price hit back to back singles which were only the second and third hits of the game for the Aces. Cory Morrison's double off the right field fence cashed Knapp, and Chad Milne's RBI single scored Price. Hathway struck the next batter out, but then Matt Alkerton stroked a three run homer.

Brad Porter came in to relief Price in the top of the seventh and struck out the side to end the game and seal the repeat championship for Kars.

Kars pitching
Steve Price WIN 6IP 2R 2ER 2H 14K 5BB
Brad Porter 1IP 0R 0H 3K 0BB

Quyon pitching
Drew Hathway LOSS 5.2IP 6R 6ER 6H 8K 1BB 1HBP
Joran Graham 0.1IP 0R 0H 1K 0BB

Kars hitting
Kristian Knapp 2-3, 2R, HR, RBI
Steve Price 1-3, R
Cory Morrison 1-3, 2B, RBI, R
Chad Milne 1-3, RBI, R
Matt Alkerton 1-3, HR, 3RBI, R

Quyon hitting
Matt Greer 2BB
Joran Graham BB, R
Drew Hathway 1-3, HR, 2RBI
Tim Craig 1-3, 2B

See below for play by play:

Starting pitchers: Steve Price for Kars, Drew Hathway for Quyon

Top 1st
Greer walked, picked off c to 2b for first out. Laframboise struck out for second out. McCleary flew out to rf for third out. 0R 0H 0LOB

Bottom 1st
Pender hit by pitch, stole second. Knapp popped out to 3b for first out. Price grounded out ss to 1b for second out. Morrison flew out to rf for third out. 0R 0H 1LOB

Top 2nd
Graham struck out for first out. Hathway struck out for second out. Armitage struck out for third out. 0R 0H 0LOB

Bottom 2nd
Milne grounded out 2b to 1b for first out. Tubman grounded out 2b to 1b for second out. M Alkerton struck out for third out. 0R 0H 0LOB

Top 3rd
McCord walked, took second on wild pitch. Craig struck out for first out. Young struck out for second out. Greer walked. Laframboise struck out for third out. 0R 0H 2LOB

Bottom 3rd
C Alkerton struck out for first out. Chevrier grounded out 3b to 1b for second out. Pender struck out for third out. 0R 0H 0LOB

Top 4th
McCleary struck out for first out. Graham struck out for second out. Hathway struck out for third out. 0R 0H 0LOB

Bottom 4th
Knapp solo homerun. Price flew out to rf for one out. Morrison struck out for two out. Milne grounded out 2b to 1b for third out. 1R 1H 0LOB, Kars leads 1-0

Top 5th
Armitage struck out for first out. McCord struck out for second out. Craig doubled and took third on a wild pitch. Young walked. Greer grounded to 1b unassisted for third out. 0R 1H 2LOB, Kars leads 1-0

Bottom 5th
Tubman walked. M Alkerton struck out for first out. C Alkerton grounded out 2b to 1b for second out, Tubman advanced to second. Chevrier struck out for third out. 0R 0H 1LOB, Kars leads 1-0

Top 6th
Laframboise grounded out ss to 1b for first out. McCleary struck out for second out. Graham walked, Baker in to pinch run. Hathway two run homer. Armitage struck out for third out. 2R 1H 0LOB, Quyon leads 2-1

Bottom 6th
Pender struck out for first out. Knapp singled. Price singled, Knapp advanced to third. Morrison doubled, Knapp scored, Price advanced to third. Milne singled, Price scored, Morrison advanced to third. Tubman struck out for second out. M Alkerton three run homer. Graham in to pitch. C Alkerton struck out for third out. 5R 5H 0LOB, Kars leads 6-2

Top 7th
Porter in to pitch. McCord struck out for first out. Craig struck out for second out. Young struck out for third out. 0R 0H 0LOB, Kars wins 6-2

Glen Cairn Men's League playoffs

The round 1 GCMFL playoffs match-ups are now set.

In the playoff play-in games, Ottawa Home Servies beat Taggart's Welding 17-10 in extra innings and will face Don Cherry's. Federal Accessibility beat ASAP and will face Mattamy Homes

Match-ups

(G1) Mattamy Homes plays (G4) Federal Accessibility

(G2) Laurysen Kitchens plays (G3) East Side Mario's

(C1) Don Cherry's plays (C5) Ottawa Homes Services

(C2) Broadway's plays (C3) D'Arcy McGee's

Round 2 will see the winners cross over divisons.

Other Notes

(C4) Taggart's Welding plays (G5) ASAP in where the winner gets a 60 pack of beer.

ASAP has the 1st pick overall after the pitcher's round in the 2012 draft.

Friday night at the GOFL Final Weekend Showdown

Friday night at the GOFL Final Weekend Showdown tournament in Quyon featured two games.

Quyon Combat Flyers 7 Ottawa Blitz 0

In the opener, the host Quyon team prevailed 7-0 over the Ottawa Blitz in 5 innings. Drew Hathway had the win with a one hitter, while Jamie Blakely took the loss with relief from Shannon Borho.

Joran Graham was 2 for 3 with a single and a double, scoring two runs. Drew Hathway had two doubles, two RIBis and scored a run. Nick Armitage was 2-3 with two runs scored and an RBI and Luke Young was 1-2 with a walk, a run scored, and the game ending RBI.

Kars Aces 4 Barrhaven Broadway Blues 0

The nightcap saw the Kars Aces score early and hold on for a 4-0 win over Barrhaven. Steve Price had the win, allowing only three hits and striking out an incredible 22 batters (two men reached on passed balls). Trevor Lahey took the loss, while Paul Ceppi came in to relieve.

Kars was led by Price who hit a solo home run in the first and Dave Tubman who hit a two run homer in the second.

Saturday games will see Kars vs Quyon and Barrhaven vs Blitz.

FWS Twitter updates

Your intrepid reporter, Fitzroy Fastball, will be at the Final Weekend Showdown for most of the weekend.

If you want to keep up to date on the scores, check Twitter as I'll be attempting to remotely update from Quyon - assuming I have a cell phone signal there.

You can read the FitzroyFastball Twitter feed here.

By the way, leave a comment or reply to a tweet if you find this interuption to my quality time in the beer garden worthwhile.

GOFL Playoff Tournament

Action begins tonight for the final road to the I4C Consulting Trophy, emblematice of GOFL playoff success.

The Quyon Fairgrounds will have a beer garden (of course) with pints $5 for 2, as well as a BBQ.

Games start at 7pm tonight and 9am on Saturday, with the final at 5pm. Added bonus is some University Women's Fastball games. For the complete schedule checkout this post.

See you there - rumour is that Fitzroy Junior and the Caveman will be on hand to watch some games as well.

UOttawa Women's Softball 2011

from Scott Searle

The UOttawa Womens team is thrilled to announce their 2011 roster. The roster includes 5 returning athletes from 2010 and 9 new faces. The team looks to be strong in the circle with the addition of the Ontario Midget MVP Jean Cardona from Pembroke, Ontario. The team also added pitchers Jacqui Timperio, Michelle Miller and welcomes back 6th year veteran Jillian Taylor who is studying for her Masters in Arts and Education.

The Gee-Gees will continue their tradition of having excellent catchers with a trifecta of elite athletes behind the plate. Gee-Gee power hitter Taylor Rogalsky is returning to the team after a summer leading her Napanee Express to a 4th place finish at Provincials before being picked up by the Bramalea Slam for the Junior Nationals. The team also adds heavily recruited Ottawa native, Grace Lonergan who played with the Mississauga North Tigers before being picked up by the Brampton Blazers for the Canadian Championships in Winnipeg. The team also added Chelsea Moran who competed on behalf of team Quebec at the Midget National Championships.
The outfield sees the return of Stephanie Miller and Elyssa Dobson who were stars for the garnet and grey in their rookie season. Joining them in the outfield will be Mary Tanos who is fresh off leading the Scarborough Sting Rays to the Eastern Canadian Championships in PEI. Three more first year players, speedsters Isabelle Pilon, Michelle Miller and Jaqui Timperio round out the outfield.

The infield will see some changes with transfer student Andrea Nelson playing SS while Grace Lonergan and Taylor Rogalsky will platoon between catcher and first base. Nadine D’entremount and Stephanie Finan complete the roster. Nadine competed for the Province of Quebec at the Midget Nationals while Stephanie represented Ontario at the Junior Women’s championships with the Bramalea Slam. Bramalea had a strong UOttawa contingent as she was joined by Taylor Rogalsky and Elyssa Dobson. This year marked a high water mark for the Gee-Gees as they sent 6 athletes to Canadian Championships (3 Midget, 3 Junior), as well as 2 to the Eastern Canadian Championships. The team will start their season at home on September 10th in Quyon at 3 and 5 to chase some wins of their own.

The coaching staff is thrilled to announce a number of additions as we added Peak Performance specialist Ray Perras, and 2008 Olympian Robin Mackin as a pitching coach. Robin is currently studying medicine at the University of Ottawa after finishing her degree in pre-med at Fresno State and Nebraska. During her athletic career Robin was named both an Academic and Athletic All-American. Local softball star Jenny Allen returns to the team as a Strength and Conditioning Specialist in addition to working with the infielders, and Paul Sauve returns to work with the catchers while Scott Searle remains the teams Head Coach.

Be sure to follow the team as they march toward the Provincial Championships in London.

2011 uOttawa Softball Roster
Name Position Number Academic Year Program Hometown
Stephanie Miller Of 2 2nd 2nd Language Teaching Cambridge, Ontario
Grace Longeran C/3B 3 1st Psychology Ottawa, Ontario
Jean Cardona P/SS 4 1st Psychology Pembroke, Ontario
Mary Tanos Of 7 1st Psychology (French) Scarborough, Ontario
Andrea Nelson SS 8 3rd Bachelor of Science specialization in Psychology Burlington, Ontario
Jacqui Timperio Of/P 11 2nd Human Kinetics Peterborough, Ontario
Elyssa Dobson OF 13 2nd Human Kinetics Brampton, Ontario
Jillian Taylor P 17 6th Masters of Arts in Education Orleans, Ontario
Michelle Miller Of/P 19 1st Health Sciences Pickering, Ontario
Stephanie Finan 1b/3B 23 1st French as a 2nd Language Brampton, Ontario
Isabelle Pilon OF 20 2nd Human Kinetics Rigaud, Ontario
Nadine D’Entremount 2B/OF 31 2nd Biology Stittsville, Ontario
Taylor Rogalsky C/3B 33 2nd Human Kinetics Napanee, Ontario
Chelsea Moran C/OF 42 1st Human Kinetics Orleans, Ontario


Coaching Staff:
Scott Searle Head Coach/Hitting/Outfield Orleans, Ontario
Jenny Allen Strength and Conditioning/Infield Coach Orleans, Ontario
Paul Sauve Catching Coach Arnprior, Ontario
Ray Perras Peak Performance Specialist Sudbury, Ontario
Robin Mackin Pitching Coach Newmarket, Ontario

Ashton League wraps up

The Ashton Men's Fastball League wrapped up their season with the Ashton Shockers, led by the pitching of Steve Cavanagh and Duane Bromley, winning the playoff title over the Ashton Sluggers. The four-team league plays Thursday nights in downtown Ashton, near Carleton Place.

North Fred takes the Loughborough Fastball League crown

from Jeff Hannah

The North Fredricksburg Kings repeated as Loughborough League Champions with a 3-1 win over Sunbury in game 4 on Wednesday night.

Sunbury extended the series with a 7-4 win on Tuesday night.

North Fred won the series 3 games to 1.

Game 1: North Fred 7 Sunbury 1
Game 2: North Fred 4 Sunbury 2
Game 3: Sunbury 7 North Fred 4
Game 4: North Fred 3 Sunbury 1

Congratulations to the North Fred Kings.

Kars Aces advance with Game 5 win - with deets

info from Cory Morrison

The Kars Aces advanced the GOFL Final Weekend Showdown with a 9-1 win in five innings on Wednesday night in Carp over the Stittsville 56ers. This game the Aces a three games to two series win.

Corey Costello had the win allowing only two hits and 14 strikeouts over five innings of work and the run was unearned. Darren Featherstone took the loss allowing ten hits and striking out six.

The Aces went out to a 3-0 lead in the first and didn't look back. Brad Pender walked and stole second. Corey Costello singled to to score Pender. Cory Morrison doubled to put runnders on 2nd & 3rd and after Milne walked to load the bases, Scott Marion singled to score Costello while Morrison was out after getting caught in a run down. Milne then scored on a passed ball.

In the second inning, Matt Alkerton tripled to lead off for Kars and scored on Chad Costello's fielder's choice. Pender then reached on an error, stole second, and scored on Kristian Knapp's single. When Morrison doubled to score Knapp, Kars was up 6-0.

The 56ers responded in the third. Featherstone reached on an error and took second on a passed ball and later scored on a dropped ball in the outfield.

Howvever in the bottom of the frame, Scott Marion and Corey Alkerton hit back to back solo shots to put Kars up 8-1.

The scoring finished off in the bottom of the fourth. Knapp was on first and Corey Costello doubled to round out the scoring at 9-1.

Stittsville hitting
Featherstone 1/3 1B Run
Scott Jessiman 1/2 1B

Kars hitting
Scott Marion 2/3 HR 1B 2Rbi
Cory Costello 2/3 2B 1B 2Rbi
Cory Morrison 3/3 (3)2B Rbi
Corey Alkerton 1/2 HR Rbi

Cornwall League finals update

This article reports that Navy Club has taken a 2 games to 1 lead in the Cornwall League final.

Some coverage of the GOFL in the EMC newspaper

This article appeared in today's edition.

Meet the Flyers - UPDATED

What better way to get ready for the upcoming tournament in Quyon than to read all about the host team, the Quyon Combat Flyers?

Check out these three postings from a Flyers' superfan.

UPDATE - the final installment.

GOFL Final Weekend Showdown September 9-10

For the first time, the Greater Ottawa Fastball League will be using a tournament to determine the playoff champion and winner of the I4C Consulting Trophy.

Quyon Combat Flyers are hosting the tournament and received the bye into the event since they were first seed. #2 Kars Aces, #3 Barrhaven Broadway Blues and #4 Ottawa Blitz all earned their way into the event by winning their best of five playoff series matchups.

The tournament format is double knockout. Also as an added feature to the event, there will be University Women's fastball doubleheader with U Ottawa GeeGees hosting the Windsor Lancers.

Below is the tourament schedule.

All the action takes place at the Quyon Fairgrounds ball diamond. Refreshments will be available onsite.

Friday September 9
G1 7pm Quyon vs Blitz
G2 9pm Kars vs Barrhaven

Saturday September 10
G3 9am Loser G1 vs Loser G2 (loser eliminated)
G4 11am Winner G1 vs Winner G2
G5 1pm Winner G3 vs Loser G4 (loser eliminated)
W1 3pm Ottawa U vs Windsor U
G6 5pm - FINAL - Winner G4 vs Winner G5
W2 7pm Ottawa U vs Windsor U
G7 9pm - "IF" Game - if first loss in G6

GOFL teams in Elkland

Results weren't so good for West Carleton Electric at the Elkland Labour Day tournament this year as they went 0-3.

The first loss was to "Dick's Diner" formerly known as the Beverage Barn from Williamsport, PA. The Diner got out to an early lead and the Electric's comeback was too late, as the final was 7-5. Andy Barber took the loss and some Dick named Trevor was the winner.

Second game was against Carp I4C Victory. Caleb Keeshig threw for Carp while Jeff Barber had the ball for Fitzroy. Carp won 8-1. Matt Medaglia had a homer for Carp, while Derek Barber had an inside the park HR for WC.

To finish things off, the Greenbush, ON Generals beat WC 7-0. Andy Barber took the loss while Dustin Veenhoff was the winner.

The other GOFL teams fared much better.

The Kars Aces won their opener against Jersey Shore, PA Generals, then lost to the tough Shaggy Dog team from Erie, PA. Kars then came up the loser's side, beating Karme Construction from Allentown, PA, the defeating aforementioned Dicks in which the benches emptied but no punches were thrown. That set up a game against the Knoxville/Ontario game on the Sunday night which was a very entertaining match up under the lights. After a big win in that game, they were ready to play on Monday when the rain cancelled things.

Barrhaven Broadway Blues won their first two games, defeating the ESA Thunderbellys (the host team), then beating the Dicks. This put them in the winner's bracket semi-final, but they lost to the New York Bombers. They too were ready to continue on Monday.

Carp I4C Victory had a tough first game against PA Power in which they lost an extra inning game 5-4. Dan Loney and Kevin McGuire had back-to-back homers in the seventh to force extra innings. I4C rolled off three straight wins before play was halted, beating WC Electric, the ESA Thunderbellys and the Greenbush Generals.

All three GOFL teams that were remaining on Monday received a portion of the payout which was divided up amongst the six remaining teams depending on whether they were in the winnners' bracket (PA Power and NY Bombers) or losers' bracket (I4C, Kars, Barrhaven and Shaggy Dog).

Fun was again had by all - Memories of Elkland 2011 soon to be posted.

Elkland Labour Day tourney photos

Bruce Hackett's Facebook album has some great photos from Elkland, including lots of GOFLers in action.

Cornwall Men's Fastball league finals

From the Cornwall newspaper, a story on Game 1 of the Cornwall League finals.

UPDATE - story on Game 2 now online.

Deciding Game 5 to be played on Wednesday - time correction

The deciding game of the Kars Aces - Stittsville 56ers best-of-five series will be played on Wednesday night in Carp at 7:30pm. (Note corrected time).

The winner of the series will advance to the GOFL Final Weekend Showdown tournament on Sept 9-10 in Quyon.

Elkland Labor Day tournament gets rained out - details

The Elkland Labor Day tournament got rained out on the Monday with six teams left. PA Power and New York Bombers were in the undefeated game, while Shaggy Dog, Barrhaven Broadway Blues, Kars Aces and Carp I4C Victory were coming up the losers' bracket. West Carleton Electric were eliminated on Sunday going 0-3.

UPDATE: Some info on the results is posted on Al's Fastball.

More to follow.

Quebec finishes second in round robin at Senior Nationals

Team Quebec finished second at Senior Nationals with a 4-3 record, behind the undefeated Newfoundland team.

Quebec beat host Owen Sound 19-8 in their final round robin game.

The blog will be dark the next few days as I will be "off the grid" in Elkland, so follow the action through the Senior Canadians website.

From the website:
After 5 great days of fastball, the round robin is complete. The play-off round will commence at tomorrow night at 6:00 pm with a showdown between the 1st place Newfoundland Labrador and the Fredericton Maritime Power Twins. This game will be followed up at 8:00 PM with Quebec Seniors vs the Vancouver Giants. Best of luck to all the competitors for a great play-off round.

Elkland Durk Sherman Classic Labour Day tournament

There are tournaments....then there is the Durk Sherman Classic on Labour Day weekend. The fields, the chicken, the Moose, the quality fastball. Been looking forward to this weekend for the last 51 weeks.

The plan is to come up with the 5th annual "Memories of Elkland" post next week to continue the trend from the last four tourneys.

Fingers cross for good weather and a good showing for the four GOFL teams in attendance.

The first round of the 15-team draw as announced today is below, and the complete bracket format is online.

Game 1: Sat Noon F-3: Jersey Shore Generals vs Kars Aces
Game 2: Sat Noon F-2: Karme Construction vs Knoxville/Ontario
Game 3: Sat 2pm F-1: New York Bombers vs Greenbush Generals
Game 4: Sat Noon F-1: ESA Thunderbellys vs Barrhaven Broadway Blues
Game 5: Sat 10am F-1: West Carleton Electric vs Beverage Barn
Game 6: Fri 8pm F-1: J.A. Transportation vs Hackett's Cubs
Game 7: Sat 2pm F-2: PA Power vs Carp I4C Victory
Game 8: Sat 4pm F-1: Winner of Game 1 vs. Shaggy Dog

Loughborough League finals

from Jeff Hannah

North Fred Kings lead the Sunbury Merchants 2 - 0 in the best of five Loughborough Fastball League Final Series.

North Fred won 7-1 on Monday night in Game 1, and won 4-2 on Wednesday in Game 2.

Game 3 of the Series is Tuesday night in North Fredricksburg at 8:30. Game 4 (if necessary) is Wednesday at 8:30 in Inverary.

Stittsville forces deciding game 5 - with details

txt update from Cory Morrison, details from Johnny Craig

The Stittsville 56ers forced a deciding game 5 by tying up their GOFL playoff series at two games apiece with an 8-5 win at the Grove over the Kars Aces on Wednesday night. Scott Herriot had a 3RBI triple in the sixth inning that was the difference.

Darren Featherstone had the win for the 56ers, while Corey Alkerton took the loss for Kars.

In top of the first for Kars, Kristian Knapp walked, stole second and took third on the over throw but Stittsville got out of the inning without allowing a run. The 56ers took the lead in the bottom of the inning when Featherstone singled, Ryan Bond walked and Scott Herriot's single cashed the first run of the game.

Stittsville pushed the lead to 2-0 on a Dan Bradley solo homer in the second inning.

Kars tied things in the when Knapp again walked, followed by singles by Cory Morrison and Corey Alkerton to cash Knapp. Morrison later scored on a passed ball to make it 2-2.

Chad Costello walked and later scored on a single in the fourth to give Kars a 3-2 lead. But in the bottom of the frame Stittsville again took the lead. John Craig singled but was put out on Dan Bradley's fielder's choice. Mike Barrett then launched a two-run HR to put the 56ers up 4-3.

Another inning, another lead change in the fifth. Cory Morrison singled and scored on Scott Marion's two run homer to centre. However Stitsville once again came back as Herriott singled, stole second, took third on a passed ball and was scored on Dan Jessiman's ground out to tie things up at 5.

After Featherstone struck out two of three and got out of the sixth inning cleanly, Stittsville took the lead for good. Adam Smith walked, Mike Barrett was hit by a pitch and Featherstone singled to load up the bases for Scott Herriott who drilled a bases clearing triple to finish with four RBIs on the night.

When Kars failed to score in the top of the seventh, Stittsvile won the game 8-5 and had tied the series at two games each.

Date, time and venue for the deciding game 5 are being discussed and will be posted here and on Twitter as soon as confirmed.

GOFL Coverage in the EMC newspaper

Report Jeff Maguire covers the GOFL Playoffs and the Quyon trip to the ISC World Tournament.