Hi everyone,

 

Our second playing day of the tour bought some slightly different fortune than the first.

We traveled a short distance to the township of New Dundee, approximately half an hour from our residence here at the Conestoga.

Awaiting was a very scenic ball park, some great fastpitch fans and a very good, young, Kitchener Cubs team.

As is usually case in Canada the opposition had a good young pitcher throwing very firm with a good change of pace. We had a lot of opportunities early, putting runners in scoring position in every one of the first four innings. The failure to convert any of these potential runs cost us dearly as we let a young team hang around long enough to burn us. Thomas Cameron struggled early and got out of some big situations with a couple of key double plays. We certainly felt like we had the momentum until a four run 4th inning put us under a lot of pressure. The runs proved insurmountable as our bats went cold for our last two turns at the plate. The Cubs would plate one more of reliever Nathan Taikato in the 6th and that was the end of the scoring.

On a positive note young Jerome Raemaki went three from three at the dish and looks far from out of his depth, and Nathan Taikato had a strong appearance in relief of Thomas Cameron.

Game two against an all star team from the tri-county area, that boasted some pretty big names, now loomed as a must win game. In no way did we want to go back to the residence with two losses. Once again they had a hard throwing right hander on the hill with what seemed like three more on the bench. However we were keen to atone for an earlier speed bump and in the second inning plated our first two runs of the night courtesy of some timely hitting from Tyron Bartorillo, Rhys Casley and the ever charismatic Wayne Laulu. Laulu hitting what some fans commented on as being “the biggest homerun they had ever seen”. And to be fair, it was huge!

Jeremy Manly got the start for us and threw great, only allowing one hit until the fourth, when once again the heavens opened up on us and the game was called in the 4th inning due to the down pour, while we were up 3-0.

 

There is still a great feeling within the team, we are disappointed at taking a loss but have our heads high and will be ready to do battle once again tomorrow.

 

Thanks for all the support out there it is really encouraging to know we have the support at home.

 

R.C