This week in Fastball...July 7th...Stratford, Mitchell, Springfield, Owen Sound, Ponsonby and Tavistock

July 7, 2011

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Some catching up  to do this week...

The Legends of Fastball  was a success, a lot of hard work  by a lot of volunteers made it  work  again....it  was another exciting tournament with some great teams playing some great ball...You can recall some  of those games when you see the photos that Gord Dearborn provided of the games, the teams and  the fans  in  the park...

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But First things first....an update on the local tournaments involving our local  teams..

BANTAM OASA's in Stratford....

The KW Selects under the leadership of Bruce Young and Gilles Butcher were  Silver Medal finishers at this years OASA Bantam Elimination tournament.

The opened the games with a  2 - 0 win over Domville, then a big win  over the Napanee team  10 - 3...(There  are KW clubs that went head to head with Napanee  over  the years and never came  up with ten runs in a season against the Express....)  the a loss  to  Tavistock, 4 -0 ,  A win over Fullarton 7 - 0 and then over Cobourg 4 - 0....The 3 - 1 over Teeswater....and in  the final....another loss to Tavistock, this time 3 - 0...Gilles Butcher says the defence played  well, the bats were quiet...

Other teams  in Stratford include...Highgate, Oshawa, New Hamburg, Pickering, Jordan, Stratford, Innerkip, Micksburg, and Port Perry...

Tavistock Gold, KW Silver and Teeswater, Bronze...

Good news for western Ontario fastball fans...good quality ball players taking the top 3 spots in  the province....

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We missed the MITCHELL  METS TOURNAMENT.....June 11th and 12th but here are the results of the competitive  division...

The Kitchener Outlaws beat the Wellington Sox 2 - 1 in  the "A" final...

They met Wellington with a victory over Cayuga Rebels 6 - 1, and the Sox beat the Linwood Jr Chiefs 13 - 8 in  the other semi.

Other Kitchener Outlaw wins were 8 - 2 over the Linwood Jrs. ....7 - 4 over Puslinch,  and 7 - 6 over the Mitchell  Mets

Wellington opened with a11 - 0 win over the Mitchell Royals...the 8 - 2 over the Tavistock Jrs...5-4 over Cayuga,

Mitchell beat the Tavi Jr A's 7 - 6 in 9 innings....and then won the B final  5 - 0 over Puslinch Kodiaks...

Nice job up in Mitchell ...a lot of local  fans wanted to make it but they were  at Hillside Park  for the Waterloo Midget Tournament

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Now, for the results  from Springfield...the big ISC qualifier for the teams and the Level 5 ISF ( International Softball Federation) qualifier for the Blue Crew...

THE KW CUBS PICK UP THE ISC BERTH with a win in a very tough tournament...with lots of top quality teams  on hand in Springfield..

JoeTodd reported to  Al's Fastball that the Cubs " gave up only 3 runs  on 3 hits for the weekend...and ended every game on the run rule"

The Cubs met Shakespeare in  the final and beat them 8 - 1 on some big hitting...Travis Hofstetter HR, Andy Baechler 3 doubles, Bob Gillow 2HRs, and 2 singles, Adam Hiller, 2 singles and a double...and Brad Thomson, a 3 run  Homer to end the game....

Alvinston and Shakespeare also picked  up invites to the ISCs in Illinois  this  August...

The Cubs other wins were 11 - 1 over Shakespeare in Game 19, Jamie Boyd spoiled Scott Wagar's no hit attempt, a homer...9 - 1 over the Combat Flyers from Quyon Quebec, Allan Phibbs  went 3 for 3 with a HR and 5 RBIs...nice  production..In game 8...The Cubs crushed the Sweaburg Crush 11 - 0  on a Scott Wagar no hitter,

Other Kitchener teams ...Kitchener Outlaws...4 -3 loss to Quyon, 11 - 8 win over Hickson Reds, a 10 - 2 win  over the Toronto Gators,  and an elimination loss to Quyon, this time 3 - 2

The Kitchener Selects lost their opener to  Sweaburg 7 - 0,  and were eliminated by the Toronto Gators....10 - 2

Elmira Expos lost their opener to Quyon 7 - 5, beat Wyvale 6 - 0 and were eliminated by Sweaburg 3 - 1

Shakespeare opened with a victory over Cree Nation..8 - 3, followed by a 5 - 0  win  over the TO Gators, beat Alvinston Indians 8 - 6, to meet the Indians  again and this time got a 2 - 1 win..before meeting  and losing to  the Cubs in the championship.....

Hickson Reds beat  Wyevale 7 - 1 in their opener.... lost to Alvinston 7 - 1 and were eliminated with the 11 - 8 loss  to the Outlaws

Alvinston beat Swaburg 9 - 2,  and Quyon 2 - 1 in their other games to meet Shakespeare  and elimination with a  2 - 1 shortfall


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In a  great fastball game...the  Umpires  are rarely noticed...BUT the Blue Crew in Springfield was under the scrutiny of  ISF evaluation with Level 5 certification on  the line..

7 Ontario  Umpires familiar to many SWOntario ball fans were part of this class of L5 hopefuls.  Mitch Zuk, Paul Baier, Peter Kluszcznski, and Tim Whitelaw included.  3 other Ontario umps, Sal Gara, George Findley and DougWebster were also on hand.

From across Canada, Glen Blake and Al Strang out of  BC, Terry Richter and Daryl Helmer from Alberta

and 2 each from California, Michgan, and 1 each from Idaho and Illinois...

Those that qualify at this  Umpire evaluation will be elgible  for Pan Am games,  ISF championships, Olympics and other international championships

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Up to  OWEN SOUND for the OASA Junior Eliminations....

Canada Day weekend..Junior Fastball Provincial Championship....winners to Napanee for the Nationals...

Owen Sound VW Selects met and beat the Napanee North Key Const.  6 - 1 in the championship game last Sunday afternoon...

Bright sunshine, clear cloudless sky, nice breeze in the  beer  tent just beyond the right field fence, good friends...and some great  fastball...

I overheard one player from the Fullarton team say to one of his teamates as they were  preparing for their opening game..."Where else would you want to be?"  Where else indeed?

Owen Sound had beaten Napanee 4 hours earlier 9 - 2,
Napanee then met and beat the Linwood Jrs. 5 - 0, much of that win credited to poor Linwood defence...

The VW  Selects met the "other"  Napane Shoeless  Joes, 7 - 0 on Saturday, followed that one with  a 15- 0 over  Tavistock A's, and over the Linwood Chiefs 11 - 1,

Napanee North Key Const...lost to the 2nd Owen Sound  entry..(Both Owen Sound and Napanee fielded a pair  of teams), but came back with  a solid  win over  Jarvis, 12 - 3 and 7 - 0 over  New Dundee, and 8 - 0 over Tavistock, leading to  their Sunday morning loss to Owen Sound.

Linwood beat Sydenham 15 - 6,   and New Dundee 10 - 7, then Owen Sound (2nd club) 9 - 4, to meet and lose to Napanee on Sunday.

Waterloo Cardinals lost  to  the Tavistock A's in their opener, 1 - 0,  then beat Glanworth 3 - 0 and then lost to the New Dundee Dodgers 4 - 1

The Southern Ontario Jays, based  out of Walkerton, opened with a  win  over Glanworth 4 - 2, lost  to  Tavistock  6 - 5. beat Newmarket 4 - 3,  and then lost to Napanee Shoeless Joes, 10 - 1 and were eliminated..

New Dundee had a 1 - 0 win  over  the Newmarket Stingers


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Here are the Legends of Fastball Classic  photos from Gord  Dearborn....
https://picasaweb.google.com/gord.dearborn/2011LegendsFastball