Pickering Tournament results

from Dave Northern

Royal Knights Victorious in 2014 Pickering Fastball Association Men's Tournament

The Royal Knights (a combination of players from these 2 teams) went undefeated in the 4th Annual Pickering Fastball Associations Men's Invitational Tournament to take the title.  They held on for a close 3 to 2 victory over the Dragons in the championship game.  The Royal Knights scored single runs in 3 different innings and held off the Dragons in the 7th when they scored their 2 runs.  Chad Feltham made a shoestring catch in centrefield with the tieing run on 2nd for the Dragons to preserve the victory.  The Royal Knights played solid ball all weekend winning 9 to 3 over the Loaded Dog, 4 to 1 over the Wranglers and 5 to 1 over the Red Sox in the round robin.  They then defeated the Port Perry Lumberjacks in the semi finals 10 to 2.

The Dragons got stronger as the tournament progressed.  They lost their opener to Port Perry 15 to 2, but followed that up with solid wins in their last 2 round robin games - 7 to 3 over the Bulls and 12 to 3 over the Woodlawn Smoke.  The Dragons semi final game vs the Angels was definitely one of the tournament highlights.  Tied 2 to 2 after 7 innings, the teams each exchanged a run in the 8th inning, then had a scoreless 9th.  In the top of the 10th the Dragons pushed across 2, but the Angels came back with 1 in the bottom and stranded a runner on base when the final out was made.  End result was a well fought 5 to 4 victory for the Dragons to set up the all Pickering final.

Congrats to the Angels who made it to the semi finals at least for the 4th year in a row.
Congrats to the Port Perry Lumberjacks, one of the top Midget teams in the province, for a great showing in their first trip to our tournament, making it to the semi finals.

All told there were 12 teams that took part in this years tournament including a few new entries.  The Durham Bulls Masters team consisted of some of the best 50 year old plus players in the province who are banding together to take a run at the ISC Masters World Championship in Kitchener in mid August. The Woodlawn Smoke came all the way from Ottawa and the Port Perry Lumberjacks Midget rep team were new to the mix this year.  The rest of the teams were familiar faces that have been pretty faithful to us over the past few years.

Thanks to Brian Sharples and his blue crew for a job well done behind the plate and on the bases.

Thanks to all the teams for a very good tournament and we hope to see you all again next year.

(Note: the Woodlawn Smoke finished 1-1-1, tied for 5th, narrowly missing the playoff round as four teams advanced.)