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v8 jwbwbaikhkmmwi 1st stouffville national contest bruce staple y correspondent i its all systems go for the ontario junior titlist stouffville merchants as the team prepares to leave for the canadian junior champi onships in st johns newfoundland next week the merchants who are sched- uledto play an oshawa and district league contest versus the oshawa juniors at the town park tonight wednesday at 830 will fly to the eastern province friday aug 9 the team is to hold a workout saturday before partici- paring inther tournaments opening ceremonies sunday the stouffville squad is to be part of a sixteam pool the merchants fplay quebec monday newfound land tuesday saskatchewan wednesday alberta thursday and i nova scotia friday 1 the second pool consists of the defending champion alberta team british columbia prince edward womens r softball championship this weekend the top seven sophomore ladies softball teams in ontario will gath er at stouffvilles memorial park this weekend aug 911 to contest the provincial womens softball association pwsa sophomore crown the action runs from friday night i through sunday afternoon on the main diamond friday night it will be hamilton versus cobourg at 7 pm with the winner taking on scarborough sat urday morning at 11 am port hope plays newmarket fri day night 9 pm with north bay and thorpld squaring off at 9 am saturday island new brunswick and the second newfoundlandoutfit the playoff round begins on the weekend immediately following the round robin merchants third baseman chris burkholder thinks his team has as good a shot as any to win it all youve got to like our chances burkholder told the tribune fri- j day weve got three top pitchers arid we have such a balanced bench w burkholder feels the merchants participation in last years national championships when they finished fourth served as a learning experi ence for the team last year we got alll the jitters out burkholder suggests that saskatchewan will be the team to beat they saskatchewan have beate n the the defending champi ons from alberta they are a very strong team scott evans who pitched for the merchants last season is now a member for the saskatchewan out- fit according to burkholder the merchants had raised around 24000 by last friday towards the projected 28000 needed to fund the trip he had nothing but praise for the town the merchants of the stouffville area have been great weve had terrific support by the people here in reaching our financial goal the merchants downed the oshawa navy team 51 in a road contest last tuesday glen cole soclced a home run and combined with darren craw ford to pitch for the stouffville squad the merchants are hoping to have recruits barry ellerbeck rideau valley ron white sebringvile and todd martin owen sound in the lineup for tonights game si m si no way out photosteve somerville stouffville stinger leanna boyd gets caught between third and home as uxbridge precision autos catcher prepares to tag her out at the uxpool diamond wednesday stouffville won 139 an abbreviated history of the merchants for rob parcells or bert as he is known to his stouffville merchants teammates the road leading to next weeks canadian junior fastball championships in st johns new foundland goes all the way back to his squirt season eight years ago and while he and the handful of merchants that remain from his first i few seasons in rep ball make their second stab in two years at the national junior title the intense 20- yearold feels that this time the team has all the parts needed to come home with the gold parcells and keith piette the two i merchants who go back the furthest have been the longest travellers on a yellow brick road which has seen some unlikely recruits through the years the pair hooked up with fellow merchants rich and chris burkhold er and chris yoshida in their first pee wee seaon in 1984 howard burkholder rich and chriss dad also came aboard that season taking over the coaching job sport i notes he would maintain through the pre sent with last year being his last sab batical season and of course scott evans joined the squad in pee wee providing the pitching that would eventually land them an ontario bantam crown in 1987 the band would also come to include the likes of dan larmer chris winn jamie showers and dan bell all of whom would go on to play with the team through the midget ranks but just when it looked like the old gang was breaking up the late carl myers set thewheels in motion in the winter of 1990 to field a stouf fville junior team which would com bine the remainder of the midget squad with their old rivals from markham and bradford parcells piette the burkholder boys yoshida showers and paul sinclair got together with markham mainstays craig crawford mike clausner ryan mclntyre and steve whitson with howard burkholder commit ted to taking the year off the troupe persuaded fred crawford craigs dad into taking over the helm evans was talked into returning after a year spent with the ontario arid canadian national teams as was this years ontario championship pitching phenomenon byron bara- nieski whom howard had pried away from bradford the year before the team went all the way to the provincial title playing a little over their heads according to parcells i didnt think wed win recalls- parcells i thought wed be in the top three or four maybe the merchants then picked up pitcher barry ellerbeck from north frontehac to bolster their roster for the national tournament in pont rouge quebec the same barry ellerbeck that parcells and stouff- fviile bantams had bested when they knocked out napanee in their provin cial eliminations victory in front of their home town faithful back in 1987 ellerbeck was masterful at the nationals heading up the merchants pitching staff but a pair of 10 defeats sealed the teams fourth place finish this year ellerbeck is back bara- nieski is hot and a third pitcher owen sounds todd martin makes for what parcells says might be the deepest staff at the national event parcells contends that last years experience at the high pressure all- canadian competition provided the merchants with a dry run this time he says its the real thing last year- it was a lot of fun to see the big crowds and just to be there it was ok to finish fourth this year i think we can win it all and with three top pitchers we have more depth that alberta and saskatchewan for whom evans will be pitching our defence is stronger and while we dont have quite thesame power as last year we have a solid lineup we can put five singles together in any inning another key says parcells is that the team has a greater feeling of unity having had a year to mesh j rivals of so many seasons as for himself parcells says he was a little disappointed he didnt get to play more in last summers tour nament this time around hes going- to change all that and he insists that he as well as the rest of the merchants are going to st johns with one purpose in mind last year i just had fun this year i want to play ball