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SE "A Famlly Tradition for 125 Years" PORT PERRY STAR - Wednesday, September 4, 1991 - 27 PORT PERRY STAR PORT EE Taylor Ford Mites are the all-Ontario champs after winning a weekend tournament in Kitchener. See story for details. Pictured, bottom row, (left to right) Scott Cunningham, Reld McTaggart, Michael MacLennan, Justin Heyworth, Mark Richardson, and Darryl Dal- ton. Top row, (left to right), Dave Dalton, coach, Justin Bigglestone, Jeffrey Ashton, Chris Jones, Ryan McQuade, Michael Versage, Aaron Chambers, and Gordon Jones, coach. Missing from the picture are Pat Versage, coach, and Lynn Jones, manager. Taylor Ford Mites capture all-Ontario championship Over the labor-day weekend our 9-10 year old "Rep" team made Port Perry proud by travelling to New Hamburg/Kitchener and capturing their divisional All- Ontario championship honors by ending the seven team tourna- ment undefeated. It climaxed an exciting year for the team which had already sur- passed expectations by winning the silver-medal for the York- Durham league losing only to Bramalea which is a "Class-A" centre. Our well-mannered young men had won our zone champion- ship over Wellington and were thrilled to attend the Provincial tournament. Throughout the O.A.S.A. playdowns and the championship tournament our players utilized the skills, plays and hitting taught to them over many on-field and off-field instructional practices to amass 120 runs in eight play-off games while limiting their opposi- tion to only 24 runs. Their championship win was also remarkable for Port Perry in that it was the first time in 16 years that a Port Perry team has won a divisional Provincial championship. Our first game was against "Rideau-Osgoode" and our team jumped out to a first inning 2-0 lead and never looked back in tak- ing a 15-3 victory. Catcher Jeff Ashton led the offense with a homerun, single and three walks and first baseman Mark Richard- son also homered. Outfielder Michael McLennan had an extra-base hit and two walks. Chris Jones batted two for three and also pitched the win on 13 strikeouts and giving up just one hit over five innings. Justin Heyworth pitched the final two in- nings for the save and struck out four. Game two was against "St. Marys" from the London area. Again we started early with a first-inning score by third baseman Michael Versage thanks to his walk and steal plus steals of second and third base by Ryan McQuade. Our big inning was the sixth with four runs thanks to walks by Reid McTaggart and Chris Jones followed by Scott Cunningham's single and stolen base. Mark had two nice hits and scored twice. Chris went all the way for the win on 15 strike outs and giving up on- ly two hits as Port prevailed in a 12-2 victory over last year's pro- vincial champions. Early Sunday morning we squared off against the 1989 champions, Napanee squad who were very competitive and drew first blood for a 1-0 lead in the se- cond inning. It looked like it might be a long game at that point but lady luck smiled on us and hot- hitting Jeff Ashton stepped to the plate the very next inning and popped an opposite field two run homer. Outfielder/first baseman Aaron Chambers had started things rolling with a good lead-off walk. This was probably, in retrospect, the single most impor- tant Taylor-Ford hit of the tour- nament as it quickly got our con- fidence back. Other key hits resulted in RBIs by pinch hitter Justin Biggelstone and Mark Richardson (one of two) in the fifth inning. Michael Versage chipped in with three walks as well as making a great. defensive stab on a hard-hit drive to the "hot corner." Chris Jones pitched the com- plete game 7-4 victory giving up Turn to Page 30 Gamblers' luck runs out at national finals as team goes winless The Greenbank Gamblers spent last week at Camrose Alberta at the Canadian Men's Senior Fastball Championships and ex- perienced their first taste of Na- tional competition. And the team returned empty handed as they lost games to Quebec, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Alberta. Without question this was the severest test the Gamblers had ever faced and while the Green- bank team has been together for many years; representing On- tario at the Canadian Champion- ships was a new and unique experience. The calibre of the teams is the best in the country and many of the teams were making their third and fourth appearances at the Nationals and this experience is invaluable. In fact it is very doubtful that any team making a first appearance would be capable of winning a Canadian championship. The defending champions from Owen Sound were making their third consecutive appearance in the annual event and even the powerful Owen Sound crew lost the championship this year to the British Columbia champions from Victoria. A familiar face to fastball fans in this area was Darren Zak (playing for Victoria) who will be remembered for his tremendous performance for Garden River at the Inter "'C" playdowns at Port Perry in 1986. Unfortunately Zak was injured early in the tourna- ment and did not see action in the finals against Owen Sound. Another familiar player was Marty Kernaghan (originally from Grafton) who was flown in from the North American "Penn- Core" Champions to play short- stop for the host Camrose Alber- ta team. Kernaghanis rated by many to be the top batter in Canada and the U.S. and he played superbly during the tournament even though Camrose fell by the wayside in the semi-finals. The Gamblers downfall started out with some early "big tourna- ment" jitters which led to some physical and some mental errors which they normally would not make, but in the long run the Gamblers were unable to produce enough run production to upset the Provincial Champions from the provinces mentioned. The scores of the Greenbank games were 5-0 vs Quebec; 3-1 vs Saskatchewan; 5-0 vs Nova Scotia; 2-1 vs Manitoba and 3-0 vs Alberta. On the positive side, Terry Till was in the top 10 of the batting in the tournament after the first three games but suffered an ankle injury and had to sit out games four and five, which was a blow to the Gambler attack. The thrill of representing your province at the National Cham- pionship is hard to describe and for first time participants it is almost overwhelming, but as the tournament wore on the Green- bank players were playing good ball and in contention. We cannot overlook the tremen- dous hospitality that was shown to the Gamblers from the moment their flight touched down at the Edmonton International Airport. We have heard of 'Western Hospitality" but the team ex- perienced this friendliness every day they were at Camrose and even though they failed to win a game they were treated as V.I.P.'s by the people of Camrose. A first rate fastball show from start to finish and the people of Camrose deserve a long round of applause. This week the Greenbank team must re-group as they meet Peterborough I.C.G. in a best two of three series to represent the zone in the 0.A.S.A. Men's Double "A" Finals, and the first game of this series will be Thursday night in Peterborough and game two in Greenbank next Monday night. ModJack tryouts delayed, rink renovations blamed By Julia Dempsey About 60 ModJack hopefuls were to hit the ice at the Scugog Arena this Sunday (Sept. 8), but due to repairs at the rink, the training camp has been put on hold. Murray Parliament, general manager of the Junior C Mo- Jacks, described the delay as a "total catastrophe" for the club. "It will force us to cancel at least three exhibition games," he told the Star Tuesday morn- ing, adding more pre-season games may be lost if host teams cannot accommodate the team. "We don't know where we're at. This is very difficult for us," he said. Parliament learned of the de- lay Tuesday morning. He was still unsure whether the team would be able to pick up any ice time outside the township for practices. The Star spoke to Parliament on Friday, Aug. 30 about the upcoming season. He said the club sent out 60 invitations, but stressed it was an open training camp and the club anticipated more than 60 players at the tryouts. The Junior C club is in a re- building stage this year as it - lost more than half of its players because of age and school conflicts, Parliament said. He estimates only nine players will return from last year's 23-man squad. But the influx of new players doesn't fighten Parliament for afew reasons. The MoJacks are allowed to sign two overaged players from last season's rooster. "Nine boys went overage last year," he said, adding the club was hoping to pick up five 21 year olds this season. The team also has an excel- lent coaching staff. Ken Har- man will be back for his fourth season as head coach, while Garnet Warriner will retain the assistant coach responsibil- ities for the sixth season. "They're excellent coaches," Parliament said. "They're there for the boys." "They give up a lot of time and they only doit because they enjoy it so much," he added. The club should be able to pick up some outstanding tal- ent from the two local Midget squads. Both teams captured the all-Ontario titles in their di- vision last season, he said. These factors have Parlia- ment feeling "pretty optimistic" that the club can bring home the Central Ontario league championship. The team has won its division two times in the past five years, he said. "If you can win your league, that's an accomplishment," Parliament said, adding the Central Ontario league is one of the toughest in the province. Last season, the team was put out in the second round by the Bowmanville Eagles. It took six games in the best of seven series. Turn to Page 28