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em 24 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, August 20, 1991 pti aa die EE aaa bes ht oo - "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" S PORT PERRY STAR "The Port Perry Canadian Tire Bantams defended thelr title in the York-Durham fastba g: fay league winning the championship for the second year in a row. Pictured are (front, from left) Greg Rankin, Chad Venning, Steve Parish, Duane Empringham, Gavin Cochrane, Corey Bricknell, Steve Stiles, Denis Smith, (back row) Todd Smart, Kent Jamieson, Grant Kay, coach Craig Venning, manager Wayne Venning, Chad Kearns, Jeff Card, Paul Linton, and coach Garnet Warner. Please see story for details on the exciting championship round. Canadian Tire defeats 12 teams in York-Durham softball tournament Port Perry Canadian Tire Ban- tams have successfully defended their York-Durham League Championship from 1990, by again winning the championship on the weekend. After ending up in first placein the 12-team league, with a 19-1 record, the local team displayed some fine softball on the weekend to recapture the crown. The Tiremen opened the double . knock-out tournament, played in Scarborough on Saturday with a convincing victory over Stroud. Jeff Card pitched a strong three- hit victory and contributed a dou- ble and a single in the 9-1 win. Cor- ey Bricknell and Chad Venning each had three hits for the win- ners with Todd Smart and Chad Kearns each having a pair. Singles went to Steven Parish, Paul Linton and Kent Jamieson. Having received a bye for their first place finish, Port Perry's se- cond game was against Markham later on Saturday afternoon. This turned out to be a "dandy" game as Denis Smith and Cam Weston for Markham hooked up in a fine pitchers battle. In the bottom of the fourth inn- ing Gavin Cochrane opened with a single, and after two were out stole second base and put the "go- ahead' in scoring position. Chad Venning then lined a double down the left field line to put Port Perry up 1-0. Markham threatened in the fourth inning when they loaded the bases, but Smith struck-out the final batter to end the threat. In the fifth inning Duane Empr- ingham singled and scored on a "booming" triple by Cory Bricknell to right field. Bricknell then scored on a sacrifice fly to short right field by Jeff Card, making it 3-0 for the Tiremen. Smith had little trouble the test of the way as the rain began to fall and the hard fought win was recorded. This win put Port Perry in the championship game on Sunday afternoon undefeated and looking for the gold medals. On Sunday afternoon the Tiremen played Aurora who had played their way back through the losers round of the draw and were looking for the 'big upset'. Aurora opened the scoring with two quick runs but a walk to Duane Empringham and singles by Jeff Card and Gavin Cochrane quickly tied the score to 2-2. Port Perry took a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning when Chad Venning singled and Paul Linton winning for Venning scored after a walk to Grant Kay and a fly ball by Todd Smart. Aurora then tied the score at 3-3 in the fifth inning and sent the game into extra innings. In the top of the eighth inning Aurora scored a pair of runs and Port Perry could only reply with a single score, as Aurora took a 5-4 victory and sent the tourna- ment into a one game "show down' for the league championship. The championship game was another close game, as the two teams battled through four scoreless innings, before Gavin Cochrane singled to open the fifth inning, Denis Smith's single sent Cochrane to third base and a throwing error by the Aurora right fielder allowed both runners to score. 2-0 Port Perry. In the top of the sixth inning Corey Bricknell singled and went to third on a single by Jeff Card. Bricknell then scored on a double. steal with Card. 3-0 for the Port Perry Tiremen. Todd Smart singled and scored on a base hit by Duane Empr- ingham in the top of the seventh inning to wrap up the scoring for Port Perry. Aurora did score one run in the bottom of the seventh inning but Denis Smith pitching another of his outstanding games was the winning pitcher 4-1. Denis allowed only four Aurora hits. This was a fine team effort on the weekend to win the champion- ship with all the players con- tributing to the victory. Corey Bricknell had to catch all four games as Grant Kay injured his finger on the first play of the game on Saturday and Corey had an excellent tournament as he "pounded" the ball all over the park, as did Chad Venning, the big first baseman who had seven hits in 14 at bat. Gavin Cochrane broke out of his slump with some timely hitting and all out hustle, while Kent Jamieson, Todd Smart and Duane Empringham play well defensive- ly, and at the plate. Grant Kay returned injured finger and all to play three ex- cellent games in the field. Denis Smith and Jeff Card pit- ched well to win the gold medals, as they only allowed seven runs i four games. This weekend the Tiremen travel to Napanee for the 0.A.S.A. All-Ontario Bantam Softball Championship Tournament, and it is hoped that the Port Perry boys can bring home another first place medal. Alberta bound Greenbank Gamblers to represent Ontario at Canadian fastball championships Without a doubt the past week has been the most memorable in the history of the Greenbank Gamblers. After evening up their Peter- borough City League semi-final series at two games each last Sun- day night, they were notified late Monday - night that Winslow- Gerolamy Motors had protested the Gambler win and that the game had been awarded to the W- G team and the series stood at 3-1 for W-G rather than tied at two wins apiece. The protest was that playing coach Ken Goreski had gone in as a pinch runner and that he was in- eligible because he had not played in five league games. The league rule states that a player must "take part" in a minimum of five league games to participate in the play-offs and as the Gambler coach, Goreski felt he had "taken part" in every league game even though he had only played in three. At any rate the league upheld the protest and gave the Green- bank win to the Winslow- Gerolamy team and the series stood at 3-1. On Tuesday night in Peter- borough a visibly shaken Gambler squad allowed the first three W-G batters to score and dropped a 3-2 squeaker and were eliminated from the series. Then late Friday night the Greenbank manager received a phone call from the 0.A.S.A. ad- vising them that Toronto "York Sundance' had decided not to represent Ontario at the Canadian Fastball Championships at Camrose, Alberta and that the Greenbank team as "runners-up"' at the Senior Elimination Tourna- ment in Waterloo were expected to be the Ontario representatives in Alberta. Finally, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday the Gamblers played in the Mens Open Tournament at Peterborough and late Sunday night, (Monday morning, actual- ly) the team returned to Green- bank having successfully defend- ed the tournament championship they won last year. Gambler catcher Paul Goreski was named the MVP of the six- teen team tournament as he caught all the Gambler games and hit the ball at a .556 clip. The thousand dollar first prize money was very welcome by the Greenbank Gamblers and will help in a small way to finance fly- ing the team to Alberta for the week-long Canadian Champion- ship series. While the honour of represen- ting the province of Ontario at a National Championship is a real feather in the cap of the team members, it also presents a ma- jor financing problem to get the team to Edmonton and have them there for a week. The O.A.S.A. presents approx- imately $5,000 to the provincial reps to help with the expenses but this amount covers less than one third of the total cost. However, attending a National Championship is a "once in 'a lifetime' opportunity and pro- bably a "first" for this area, and the Gamblers will be flying to Ed- monton this Saturday (August 24) with the tournament winding up on September 1. This week and next will be hec- tic for the Greenbank players-and management as they make final preparations for the national fastball showdown. The Gamblers are allowed to add three ball players to their squad for the tournament from any place in Ontario and they ex- pect to add a pitcher and two fielders from the York Sundance team. No doubt the members of the Gambler team from the little hamlet of Greenbank will never forget the year they represented Ontario at the Canadian Senior Mens Fastball Championships. (This will make great story. tell- ing material for their grand- children in about the year 2015.) The ice at Scugog Arena is tentatively scheduled to be putinon Tuesday, Sept. 3. According to manager Todd Healey, the date could be pushed back if the arena roof is not fixed he told The Port Perry Star last week. Even though the ice is not yet in, open ice time is al- ready very slim. The ice times that are available are all after midnight. Prices for ice time this year at the Scugog Arena is $65 per hour at the subsi- Scugog and Blackstock arenas prepare for ice; rental time still available dized rates, and $100 for in- dividual users per hour. The ice at Blackstock is scheduled to be put in about the middle of October ac- cording to chairman of the arena board, Blair Martyn. The ice at Blackstock Are- na is open for rental 24 hours a day. It is not open Monday and Tuesday as the curling club uses it. Mr. Martyn added that the arena usually has about 80 hours a 4 of rental time available.