24th Annual North Bay World Seniors Fastball Tournament
To say it wasn't the best weekend weather wise for this most prestigious tournament is putting it mildly .It started raining Friday night during the preliminary round and continued into Saturday where all afternoon games had to be postponed .The committee made a decision and only two round robin games and in some cases one determined the seeding for the top 14 "AA" teams and bottom 14 "A" teams prior to the playoff round . Some 28 teams took part in this year's edition of the tournament . Here were the final seedlings just before the quarter finals got underway :
"A" 15. Latford 16. Moosanee Redmen 17. Hamilton Stingers 18. Fraser 19 . Hamilton Pirates 20 . N.Bay's Don Cherry's 21 . Will's Bus Line 22 . Sudbury Athletics 23 . Mattawa 24 . Anthom 25 . Temagami First Nation 26 . Lindsay 27 . Boston Pizza North Bay 28 .Guy's Tire North Bay
"AA" 1. Sudbury Relics 2 . Val Gagne Hawks 3. Col;d Spring Cats 4. CFB N.Bay 5. Toronto Bingos 6. Peterborough 7. Oshawa Ravens 8. Missassauga Soxs 9. Shakespeare Colts 10. Rama First Nation 11. North Bay Hoppers 12 . City Centre Collision N.Bay 13. N.Bay Kent Trusses 14. Ingersoll Masters
The playoffs
In the "A" Hamilton Stingers defeat Guy's Tire 4-1;Don Cherry's dumps Temagami 11-2 ; Will's Bus doubles up on Antharns 12-5 ; Boston Pizza defeats Fraser 3-1 ; Lindsay edges the Hamilton Pirates 7-5 ; Sudbury Athletics defeat Mattawa ; in quarter final axction its Hamilton over Don Cherry's 3-0 ;Wills blanks Mossonee 5-0 .Lindsay defeats Boston Pizza and the Athletics have the better of Latchford . In semi final play the Hamilton Stingers advance to the final with a 10-1 victory over Will's while Lindsay defeats the Athletics 7-1
"AA" In the "AA" its Cold Springs 10-0 over Ingersoll ; Hoppers defeats Peterborough 5-1 ; Oshawa defeats Rama ; Kent dumps CFB 13-7 ; Toronto Bingo blanks CCC 10-0 ; Missassauga edges Shakespeare 6-4 / in quarter final action Cold Springs 3-0 over Hoppers ; Oshawa edges Val Gagne 2-1 ; Toronto defeats Kent 5-4 and Missasauga has the better of the Relics 5-1 .In semifinal action Cold Springs advances to the final with a 7-3 victory over Oshawa while Missasauga does the same with a 9-5 win over Toronto Bingo
Championship games
"A" HAMILTON STINGERS VS LINDSAY OLDTIMERS
The sun came out finally on Sunday afternoon but the cold winds were still around howling and forcing most fans to huddle up together or cover themselves with warm blankets .The concession booths were busy making coffee and hot chocolate . The game itself was most exciting and turned out to be a pitchers' duel between Rob Straetmans of the Stingers and Rich Provost of the Oldtimers .Through the first three innings the score remained tied at 0-0 and at that point only the Stingers had a hit . In the fourth both teams score a run and we are now going to the final and dramatic fifth inning knotted at 1-1 . In the top of the fifth , the Oldtimers go out in order .In the bottom of the fifth with two outs and a 2-0 count on the third batter Bill Lanto who hits a deep ball over the right fence and wins the game for the Stingers 1-0
Rob Streatmans of the Stingers is named top pitcher of the "A" division while Bill Lanto gets the MVP nod
"AA" MISSASSAUGA SOXS VS COLD SPRING CATS
Just as in the first championship game , once again a pitcher's duel develops between Bill Carson of the Soxs and Todd Uhrig of the Cats .They play through four innings with no score where the Cats have two hits to this point while their pitcher Uhrig is tossing a perfect game (7 K's) . In the 5th frame , the Soxs get their first hit but do not capitalize while shutting down the Cats . In the first extra frame (tie breaker) with a runner on second base to start the inning , the next three batters go out in order ( one fly out and 2 K's . When the Cats come to bat for their turn , there is a runner on second base .The first batter flies out , the next two are intentionally walked to load the bases but then the runner moves to third on a fielding error and the next batter Terry Eyton hits a single to bring in the winning run .The Cats win their fourth title in a row and sixth in the last seven years . Todd Uhrig is named top pitcher in "AA" while Terry Eyton captures the MVP award
The committee under the direction of David Cerisano and the umpiring crew under Angie Cerisano are to be highly commanded for a well run tournament . See you all next September 2-11 in North Bay on the Labor Day Weekend !
Attached you'll find the photos of both winning teams and the photo of the top pichers, MVP's as well as one caption photo for the weekend .
