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SS ROI Fie an 3 RETIRE RAR - TIO ~ Hf 18- PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, July 11, 1995 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" SPORTS Bow out to Stittsville 'Elimination Curse' sinks Merchants in final This sports report for the Junior Merchant Fast- ball Team is sponsored by Williamson's GM, Preci- sion Construction, Ernst & Young, and Taylor Fuels. We have all heard the expression "the luck of the draw", but we must take advantage of that draw to make it lucky. In the Elim- ination Games played this past weekend in Oshawa, the Port Junior Merchants had an extremely favora- ble draw to walk on top of the water in their first three games. The team goal is to be a real contend- er in the next two to three years, but the Juniors felt they had the talent this year to achieve at least a record of four wins and two losses. Call it the Elimination Curse, tough breaks, lack of intensity, or getting down when they needed to be up, etc. Call it what you want, but unfortunately the Junior Merchants ex- ited very quietly in two straight games. The first game on Fri- day was against the Hick- son Juniors and started fa- vorable in the second when Cochrane got on base with a single and moved to second on a Laird single. A double steal saw Laird called out Greenbank Mites defeat Garden Centre narrowly On July 5, Greenbank Amsoil Synthetic defeated Greenbank Garden Cen- tre in an exciting close game. The Garden Centre « team played a tight game, with great batting skills by Brad Layzell, Mark Oli- vero and Kevin Hansen. Excellent pitching by Sean Harper. The Amsoil team played well defensively with spe- cial mention to Katelyn Lee, Steven Norton and Samantha Stevenson. Good effort at the plate by Scott Stone. Excellent, well played game by both teams. SPORTS REPORTS will continue in i The Weekend Star +: at second, but Cochrane moved to third and scored on a sacrifice RBI by Vand- er Slagt. Card was pitch- ing strongly with a one- run lead and had a no- hitter going into the sixth. Hickson was able to get a four-hit rally together in the bottom of the sixth, and scored three runs. Port rallied in the seventh when Moase, on with a double, and Empringham, on with a single, were at second and third respec- tively. Unfortunately, they were stranded when the game ended with a strikeout and a 3-1 win for Hickson. Hitters for the game were: Ryan Burkholder, single; Cochrane, single, Empringham, two singles; Laird, single; McBride, walk, single; Moase, dou- ble; Vander Slagt, sacri- fice RBI. Card pitched six innings striking out sev- en, allowing one walk, four hits and three earned runs. As mentioned earlier in the article, the team had a chance to "walk on water", but with the first loss they were forced under and had to swim against the cur- rent. The second game was now against a highly rated team from Stittsville, and Port's odds did not seem as positive as they had at the outset of the tournament. Stittsville's pitching was not as strong as in previ- ous years, but they were still a good hitting team. Port began the game by hitting the pitching hard but leaving base runners stranded. Stittsville, how- ever, was able to score two runs in the second and two runs in the fourth to put the Port Juniors in a large hole. In the middle in- nings, the Merchant bats were quiet, but in the sev- enth they finally showed some life. Moase, on with a single, was moved to sec- ond when Vander Slagt reached base on an infield error. Moase then proceed- ed to score on an RBI sin- gle by Empringham and with runners at third and first with only one out, were threatening to rally. Unfortunately, the Stitts- ville pitcher dug deep and was able to strike out the next two Port batters to end the game as a 4-1 win for Port's opponent. To everyone's surprise, Port was handed a quiet and early exit from the Elimi- nations. Hitters for the game: Rich Burkholder, single; Empringham, single, RBI; Moase, single; Smart, sin- gle: Vander Slagt, walk. Pitchers were Venning and Swift with two strike- outs, three walks, seven hits allowed, and four earned runs. No one can place the blame on any one particu- lar reason why the Port Juniors fared the outcome they met this past week- end. Fastball is a team sport, and should always be won or lost as a team, and not as individuals. The Juniors will need to regroup and agree on the strategy for the balance of the year in preparation for a possible fourth All- system te! ne 193 North Street, Port Perry Ontario Championship. This Junior B Tourna- ment will be hosted by Port Perry on Aug. 26 and 217. Congratulations go to the Oshawa BB organiza- tion who will be sending two teams to the Canadi- an Games. There were some excellent games in the final rounds of the Eliminations between the Oshawa Juveniles, the Oshawa Juniors and Se- bringville. The Oshawa Juveniles were the overall champions and placed first by losing only one game against the Oshawa Juniors. The Oshawa Jun- iors placed second and lost only two games, one against Sebringville, and the second in the champi- onship game against the Oshawa Juveniles. Both teams have qualified to represent Ontario in the Canadian Games to be held in British Columbia in August. The only game this week for the Port Junior Merchants will be against the Elimination Champi- ons, the Oshawa Juve- niles, who have played ex- cellent ball over the last three weeks. The last game against the Oshawa Juveniles saw Port mercy them in a 5-0 ball game. This is now a different team and Port will have their hands full this Tues- day at 8:30 p.m., south dia- mond. Don't forget the World Class Ball to be played this Wednesday and Thursday. See the paper for more details. AWNINGS ENJOY SUN OR SHADE ON YOUR PATIO OR DECK e Custom designed in any size o Perfect for todays lifestyle e Self-storing e Beautiful fabrics from European designers No permanent framework e Hi-tech electronic sun & wind control COLRLEEE AL), Unionville tops Taylor At home on June 28, Port Perry's Taylor Ford Mercury Mites met Unionville. Shaky defence saw Unionville, get ahead on several fielding errors in the early going. In the fourth inning, Ashley Lucas led off with a homer and Chris Isaacs had a round tripper on his turn at bat. Ashley went in to pitch and shut Unionville down. Our team tried to fight back with Kevin Forbes, Andrew Hale, Peter Jones and Jeff Corbett all scoring in the late going, but it wasn't quite enough. That early lead was maintained by Union- ville for the win. The following week the Taylor Ford Mercu- ry Mites were at home to league-leading Auro- ra. Shane Jeffrey was on the mound and brought along his best performance. Even the opposing coach was im- pressed. We gave them a good game but their depth eventually wore us down on the base stealing. Mike Lycett reached safety three out of three times, scor- ing twice, and looked alert and played hot in back catch. Chris Isaacs also scored twice on smart base running and both players ac- counted for our four runs. Merchants FromPage 16 up at one apiece in the third inning and then broke the game open in the fourth inning as they scored six times to take a 7-1 lead. Campbellford was able to pick up only one more run as the Mer- chant defence shut them down and Port went on to take a 7-2 victory. Mar- shal McQuaid went the distance on the mound for the Merchants, striking out five in picking up the 'win. Doing the hitting for the Merchants in this game were Jason Best with a single, double and a walk, Brad Monsma with two singles and a walk, Marshal McQuaid with a home run and a walk, Ryan Hawkins with a dou- ble, Doug Short, Marc Ver- sage and Ryan Williamson with a single each and Jon Froats had a walk and was hit by a pitch. With a two-win and one- loss record, the Merchants were eliminated from fur- ther play in the tourna- ment as Napanee never lost a game in the round robin play and advanced into the final.