Oshawa Bombers at the Jim Bradford Memorial Tournament
June 16, 2011
Cobourg, ON
Hi Al
The Oshawa Bombers of the Oshawa City and District Fastball League travelled to Cobourg's Legion Fields this past weekend and surprised a lot of people.
Behind the strong arm of Ryan Swift, who pitched very well in all six games, and his team mates they recorded a 5 - 1 record only losing the final to Team Quebec.
With good to great defence and timely clutch hitting the Bombers beat the Napanee Midgets on Friday night in a quiet game, 2 - 0 for their first win. On the Saturday morning the Napanee Juniors had no answer to the Bomber's bats as the Oshawa squad posted a 6 - 1 victory. The toughest game was next on Saturday afternoon and after the rain as the Bombers met the hometown favourite Billy Fairney's ISC Cobourg Force team with lefty Jeff Murphy toeing the rubber.
The Bomber's survived Murphy's 3 hitter as they scratched a single run to win 1 - 0. Ryan Swift was great in shutting out the Cobourg squad. This left the Bombers seeded first of the 8 playoff teams as they allowed but 1 run in 3 preliminary games and home field advantage in all playoff games.
Sunday morning saw the Bombers face a rejuvenated Napanee Midget team as they had a 5 - 3 lead going into the bottom of six when the Bomber`s laid on the lumber and exploded for 4 runs to take the lead and eventually win 7 - 6.
Next up was against the Legend ISC Hall of Fames Darren Zack and his Cobourg Force team for the two teams second go around. This time the Force did score, but it was not enough as the Bomber`s survived the semi-final game 2 -1 after a great line drive catch by third basemen Jason Carey for the third and final out of the game with two Force runners on.
The finals were upon us as the surprising Bomber team faced off with Francois LeClair`s Quebec Team. Swift allowed 3 runs as that was all the Quebec team required as they won 3 - 0. LeClair was credited with a no hitter. Ryan Swift stretched it out to the limit during all his pitching performances and did a great job with his very supportive mates of Matt Swift c Jason Swift 1b, Jason Carey 3b, Derek Ard 2b and Keith Coutu lf, who had good at bats all weekend..
Coach Swift would like to thank all his team for raising their game to a new achievable standard.
Thanks also go out to organizer Steve Bedard, the Blue Crew who worked as hard as the teams to get it right and all the volunteers, including Rory and Denise Quigley and Scott Tuttle, who gave of their time to groom the beautiful diamonds at Coboug`s Legion Fields, snack bar ( great variety and quality ), BBQ and beer tent. All profits went to the Cobourg Minor Softball Association and again we thank them for their efforts and hopefully they will host for many years to come.
Mal Swift
