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ORIGINAL STORYÂ Â by Steve Rice, Stratford Beacon Herald
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Defending champion Newfoundland 3Cheers Pub has advanced to the final of the 2013 Canadian men's fastball championships thanks to a 6-4 win over Scarborough Force Saturday night.
3Cheers Pub, 8-0 in the round robin and 2-0 in the playoffs, will face a yet to be determined opponent at 3 p.m. Sunday at Packham Road diamonds in Stratford.
The Kitchener Cubs and Newfoundland Don Cherry's open the final day of action at 10:30 a.m., with the winner advancing to face Scarborough at 12:30 p.m. The winner of that second game meets 3Cheers Pub for the championship.
In Saturday night's game, 3Cheers Pub got to Scarborough starter Paul Koert early, scoring four runs in the first inning and one in the second. Koert gave up six hits and a walk in one and two-thirds innings, with no strikeouts.
Sean Whitten and Sean Cleary combined to allow eight hits while striking out 12 for 3Cheers. Blair Ezekiel was 3-for-4 for Newfoundland.
FALCONS OUT
Earlier Saturday, a 5-1 loss to Quebec knocked the host Shakespeare Falcons out of the tournament.
The round-robin game was one of three that was washed out by rain on Friday and had to be played early Saturday. In other games Newfoundland Don Cherry's defeated Nova Scotia 9-2 to clinch fourth place while Kitchener Outlaws forfeited their meaningless game with Scarborough Force.
Errors were costly to the Falcons in their loss to Quebec as four of the five Quebec runs were unearned.
With the score tied 1-1 in the top of the fifth, Quebec scored three runs on a couple of singles, two walks, an error and two wild pitches.
Quebec pitcher Darren Zack held the Falcons in check, allowing one unearned run on sevenhits and a walk while striking out four.
Losing pitcher Andrew Phibbs and reliever Fred Follings combined to allow seven hits and three walks while striking out eight.
On Friday the Falcons fell 9-5 to the Kitchener Cubs in an afternoon game where they led 5-0 after two innings.
In the first, Keith Rankin singled and scored on a single by Jodie Schnarr for a 1-0 Falcons lead.
Shakespeare added four runs in the second with singles by Reid Yantzi, Sam Forbes, Andrew Medhurst and Jamie Wicke, a walk to A.J. Moses and a Cubs error.
But Kitchener exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the third, aided by a couple of Falcons' errors, a couple of walks and a three-run homer by Dale Levy.
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SATURDAY'S GAMES
Round Robin
Scarborough 7 Kitchener Outlaws 0 (forfeit)
Nfld Don Cherrys 9 East Hants, N.S. 2
Quebec 5 Shakespeare Falcons 1
Playoffs
C1 - Newfoundland 3Cheers 9 Nfld Don Cherrys 0
C2 - Scarborough 10 Kitchener Cubs 1
C3 - Kitchener Cubs 13 Nova Scotia 3
C4 - Nfld Don Cherrys 9 PEI Fawcetts 2
C5 - Nfld 3Cheers 6 Scarborough 4
SUNDAY'S GAMES
Game C6 - Don Cherry's vs. Kitchener Cubs, 10:30 a.m.
Game C7 - Scarborough vs. Winner C6, 12:30 p.m.
Game C8 - Newfoundland 3Cheers vs. Winner C7, 3 p.m.
steve.rice@sunmedia.ca
