july2009

35th Annual Huntsville Men’s Fastball Tournament

July 14, 2009

Huntsville, ON

35th Annual Huntsville Men’s Fastball Tournament
 
               Some 47 games later and three days , the 35th annual Huntsville Men’s Fastball Tournament is now history.
                From the offset it became very obvious that half a dozen of the 24 participating teams from across the province were the class of the tournament. Each team were assigned the round robin games which would determine the top 16 seeded teams to advance to Sundasy’s playoff round of semi finals and championship games.
                In round robin action which got underway at all three fields Friday night and continued into Saturday evening two teams amazingly did not allow a single run . The teams in question were the Bradford Soxs who blanked their three opponents 27-0 and finished seeded number one . The second team was Storm Fury from Niagara Falls who blanked their opponents 17-0 but one of those games was a scoreless tie with Rama from near Orillia which eventually knock them out of the “A” championship finishing with only 5 pts instead of 6 .
                It was a treat to watch future hall of famer Mark Crawford hurling ball as well John Hanes Jr son a hall of famer by the same name pitch for Waterdown Targets of Niagara Falls. There was also local favorite Paul Lizotte pitching ball for Bracebridge .
               Two young twenty year olds( Dennis Dewar for the J.C. North Stars and Marvin Smith of the Etobicoke Royals) and future stars in their own surprised many of the fans with their strong abilities on the mound both having a great drop ball as well as a fastball and riser.The

future certainly looks good for the North (Dennis originates from the North Shore ) and the South with Marvin.

       It was on with the semi finals (see attached final seeding of all 24 teams) starting at 10 AM Sunday morning under a clear sky and beautiful  21C degree temperature.

        In the “D” division teams 13 to 16 , Warterdown Targets took an early lead  of 2-0 from the opening frame and held for a 6-3 victory over Lindsay to advance to the final.In the second semi Rama easily got by Vdney Bullets  by the score of 7-0. The championship final was  a great battle where Rama took and early 2-0 lead only to have Warterdown score 2 in the bottom of the seventh inning to send this “D” championship to an international tie breaker in the eight inning. Rams couldn’t do anything in their half .Come the bottom of the inning , runner starting on second base , the next batter went out on an infield play followed by a hit and a base on balls to load the sacs. The fifth batter up  ,Andrew Hill on the second pitch , hit his 4th round tripper of the tournament  , this time a grand slam and gave the boys from Waterdown the D championship and a purse of $350 .

          In the “C” division teams 9 to 12 , Stoufville put on a defensive gem and scored a 2-0 victory over Vkthoff for the first semi final which was followed by  Cool Hand Lukes from Niagara’s  7-2 triumph over the Parry Island Hawks. Ron Winger went the distance for the Lukes giving up but 3 hits and fanning 7 batters.This set the stsage for a final that saw the Niagara boys easily defeat Stoufville 10 t0 3 and capture the “C” championship crown as well as a purse of  $400.

            In the “B”  In the first semi final Lake Simcoe Lightning easily disposed of Bracebridge 11-0. The second semi final was a beauty with
Northern representative from Greater Sudbury , the J.C. North Stars losing a heart breaker of 3-2 late in the game . It was great to see the presence of Brad “Shamy” Ringuette   who presently is battling cancer in attendance all weekend long cheering as a fan for the J.C. North Stars(many of the players are his close friends) . Brad was great pitcher in the Greater City of Sudbury area for many years as well as across the province of Ontario often working in his younger days with Darren Zach. We will pray for him . Once more we got ourselves a good final where Lake Simcoe came from behind an early defecit to edge out Storm Fury from Niagara 4 to 3 and claim the “B” championship and a purse of $450 .
          Finally came the top “A” division with four top seeds who all went 3-0 in round robin action . In the opening semi final , the Bradford Soxs continued their domination and blanking of the opposition , this time a 6-0 victory over local team Huntsville .In the second semi final , another defensive gem Minesing from Orillia got the better of the Royals from Etobicoke 3 to 1 . We had a great final between the two winners as Bradford took an early 2-0 lead but that is all they could manage as for the first time in the weekend somebody scored against them and that was Minesing who took a 4-2 lead into the third frame added two more runs and with strong pitching and a stingy defence took the “A” division and tournament championship with a 6-2 victory. They received a purse of $800 while the runners up Bradford received $500 .It is hoped that many of these teams who received the invitation from Roger Legendre will attend the up coming Northern Ontario Open Ladies and Men’s Fastball Championship from August 21st to 23rd in Sudbury . For those who did not get the pamphlet simply email Roger at er_legendre@sympatico.ca .
It was a great weekend where many of these fine players from all over demonstrated their skills in running, pitching and fielding . As head organizer Stan Remington said “Lets hope they all return for the 36th annual tournament in July of 2010.
                             Yours in fastball
 
                               Roger Legendre
                                Public Relations Liaison/Advisor
                                Rick McDonald Memorial Fastball League from Greater Sudbury & Girls Minor Softball/Fastpitch Association
                                 Reporting from Huntsville the site of the tournament

OUR SPONSORS

TRENDING NOW
@alsfastball
FRIENDS OF AL'S FASTBALL
AU Sable AFP Fastpitch Fastpitch West International Softball Congress Men’s Fastpitch SA North American Fastpitch Association Ontario Amateur Softball Association

Ontario Masters Fastball sports betting site betway Shooters Fastpitch League Softball Canada Softball New Zealand WBSC