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22- PORT PERRY STAR - Wednesday, May 22, 1996 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" EEE------------E AU YS. (er atc Sr ISOC MSI DILIES SY AVE: ORTS Until this past weekend, it was hard to tell by the weatherman that the 1996 ball season was upon us. This is the first year that many of us can remember when the rainy weather allowed very few practices and rained out all sched- uled exhibition games. Therefore, this past week saw the Port Perry Junior Merchants start league play without a proper warm-up, yet split the games with an 11-0 win over the Markham Juniors amd a 3-1 hard loss to the Greenbank Gamblers. Rather than use this write-up to re- port game details, this article will fea- ture an introduction to the local Port Perry Junior team. This is the team which has won three All-Ontario Cham- pionships in Midget C, Midget B, Juve- nile A, and came in second in Bantam and in last years Junior B OASA final. The core of this team has grown up to- gether in Port Perry, and now, as young men ranging from 20 to 22 years of age, they have a goal of winning the Elimi- nations this year as well as the Junior B All-Ontario Championship. The Port Perry Juniors are part of the Oshawa City and District Men's League which includes teams such as Bradford Sox, Greenbank Gamblers, Toronto Chick N Deli, Richmond Hill, Oshawa BB Juveniles, Oshawa Heat, Bramalea Junior Indians, Markham Waxers, Oshawa BB Juniors and Scar- borough Royals. The team this year is made up of the following 15 players: Cory Bricknell, Junior Merchants are prepared for another season of fastball action Jeff Card, Jason Cochrane, Duane Em- pringham, John Ennis, Bobbie Fergu- son, Aaron Harrison, Sheldon Herbert, Scott McLennan, Jason McBride, Brad Moase, Todd Smart, Jason Underwood, Darrel Vander Slagt, and Chad Ven- ning. Coaching again this year are Ron Redman, Bob Vander Slagt and Craig Venning. Additional staff are Larry Pil- key who will work with the hitters, and Brad Bricknell who will work with the pitchers. Without our sponsors, this talented group of ball players would not have the opportunity to play together as a team. We would like to thank the following lo- cal merchants for their faithful support: R.B.Moase, C.A.,Jayda Holsteins, Pre- cision Construction, Ives Antiques, Van and Truck World, David Chow's Res- taurant, Gary Moase Welding, Taylor Fuels, Mike Tobin Photography, Port Perry 1.G.A., HUB International, Mill- work Home Centre, David's Hairsty- ling, Williamson GM, Ernst & Young, and PSB Speakers. Most home games will be played on Tuesday evenings, 8:30 p.m. at the South Diamond. The games this week are: Tuesday, May 21 - Richmond Hill vs. Port Juniors, this weekend will be the Scarborough Royals Tournament with the first game at 8:30 a.m. Satur- day. : We invite you to come to the ball park and get to know a great group of young men who are focused on providing excit- ing ball for our loyal fans. Legion Squirts put in good The Port Perry Legion Squirt Fastball Club played its first league game this past Thursday at home against Oshawa and although they came out on the short end of a 12-5 score. They turned in a very good performance. With the way the weather has played havoc on the ball season up until now there hasn't been a lot of practice time for the team but none the less they showed a lot of potential and with a bit more hard work they'll definitely be a team to contend with. Shane Jeffery started on the mound for the Le- gionnaires and had open- ing night jitters as he had a hard time finding the strike zone walking the first two batters he faced. Then after two errors and another walk the locals were down by a 4-0 score. The Legionnaires man- aged to pick up one run in their home half of the in- ning to make it a 4-1 count. Shane settled down as he became more confident and after giving up two more runs -in the second inning he shut the Oshawa team down over the next two innings and his team was only down by a 6-1 score after four in- nings of play. Geoff Grievson came on to pitch the last two in- nings and he too had the first game jitters as he walked five batters. Oshawa picked up six more runs to take a com- manding 12-1 lead going into the Legionnaires last bat. Shane Jeffery got things going for the Le- gionnaires with a solid single. Then with two out ~ performance, but lose match Geoff Grievson blasted a double sending Shane around to score. Luke Pil- key followed this up with a walk and Lucas Fraser was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Andrew Hill now stepped up to the plate and - promptly launched a triple to deep field to round out the Le- gionnaires scoring at five. Also hitting for the Le- gionnaires were Kyle Ban- nan, Geoff Grievson, and Luke Pilkey with singles and Keith Forbes and An- drew Hill picked up a walk each. Also having a strong game defensively was Josh Kendell, who made a nice catchin right field. The Squirts next home game is on Thursday, May 23 against Willowdale with a 6:30 p.m. start time. Gamblers open their season with a split The Greenbank Gam- blers played twice last week to get their 1996 fastball season underway and have a win and a loss to show for their efforts. Last Monday night the Gamblers went to Rich- mond Hill and in extreme- ly cold weather (for base- ball) they dropped an extra inning encounter to Richmond Hill by a 4-3 score. Greenbank appeared to have this game locked up as they entered the sixth inning with a 3-0 lead but Richmond Hill scored a run in the sixth, two more in the seventh to tie the score (without a base hit) and with two out in the eighth scored the game winning run. Some shaky defense and bases on balls were the Gamblers downfall in this game but the bats were not hot either as Green- bank managed only four hits during the game. Rich Burkholder had a pair with Trevor Till and By- ron Baranieski adding one hit each. Chris Burkholder, Rich Burkholder and Greg Ne- well drove in the three Gambler runs. Thursday night saw the much improved Port Perry Juniors come to Ianson Park in Greenbank and in a tight pitchers duel the Gamblers Perry by a 3-1 score. Byron Baranieski was the big story for Green- bank as he tossed a com- plete game and belted a dramatic three run homer in the sixth inning to salt down the Gamblers win. edged Port Sheldon Herbert and Jeff Card shared the Port Perry pitching duties with the Port hits going to Brad Moase, Todd Smart, Bob Ferguson and Jason Co- chrane. Greenbank was held to- four hits, as the bats are still cold with Chris Burk- holder having two hits and Greg Newell and Byron Baranieski rounding out the attack. The Gamblers are with- out the services of their ace southpaw Mark Gore- ski who underwent knee surgery resulting from a hockey tournament in Minden that the Gamblers attended. While Greenbank won the hockey tourney it cost them the services of Gore- ski until at least June which will place a big workload on Byron Bara- nieski. This week the team goes to Bradford on Wednesday night and right back in Greenbank on Thursday against Bramalga. n Opening game Merchant Midgets come out on short end of 6-3 decision The Port Perry Mer- chant Midget Fastball Club played their first home game of the season on Thursday, May 16 against Oshawa. The Mer- chants put in a solid effort but came out on the short end in this game by a 6-3 score. The first inning had Oshawa jump out front by one but the Merchants tied things up at one apiece in their half of the first as Jason Best got on via the walk and came Angels host annual tourney The Angels hosted their slo-pitch fourth annual tournament last weekend. The men's division of the slo-pitch tournament ended up with Sunday Pscyco of Toronto defeat- ing Oshawa Rosedale old boys 27-14. This was one of six games played as well as Martins Haulage of Port Perry. In the mixed teams the first semi-final was played between Seagrave 11 and Port Perry 7. In the other semi-final, Twelve Pack of Cannington 12 Seagrave Stealers 7. In the championship game in mix finals Twelve Pack of Cannington who were strong for the Sea- grave crew as they defeat- ed 34-23 - a closer game than the score indicated. It was 8-7 after four in- nings then both started hitting and running until the final tally was 34-23 for Cannington. around to score on Ian Shrigley's triple. The Mer- chants took a one run lead in the botton of the second as Glen Espie tripled and came in to score on a Mike ~ Phoenix single. Oshawa tied things up in the top of the third at two apiece and continued to pick up runs scoring two in the fifth, one in the sixth and one in the sev- enth to take a 6-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh. The Merchants mounted a comeback in their last bat as Ryan Williamson led off with a double and scored on Marc Versages double. But then the wheels fell off and the Merchants couldn't muster any more runs and took the loss by a 6-3 count. Also picking up hits for the merchants were Matt Kay with a single and a double by Kevin Hobbs. Marshal McQuade and Matt Kay split the pitch- ing duties in this game and considering that it was their first game action of the season, having not being able to play any pre- season games due to the weather, they both turned in an excellent effort and will only improve as the season goes on. The Merchants next home game is on Thurs- day, May 23 against Pick- ering with an 8:30 p.m. start time. % ect " a HA AE Tm Es i eT wr ev wi gg Erm mum mp dia gen i TU oo. Nr NW TE re