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"Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" 20- PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, August 29, 1995 SPORTS SILVER MEDAL WINNERS - Port Perry Junior Merchants team members, front left, Chad Venning, Steve Laird, Jason Cochrane, Darrell VanderSlagt, Duane Empringham, Brad Moase and Rich Burkholder. Back left, Bob VanderSlagt (coach), Scott MacLennan, Ryan Burkholder, Paul Linton, Jason ans, Craig Venning (coach), Jeff Card, Todd Smart and Ron Redman coac This sports report for the Junior Mer- chants is sponsored by Tri Son Paving, Port Perry IGA, Millwork Home Centre and Williamson GM. On Tuesday and Thursday of this past week, the Port Junior Merchants played Port Antrim in two exhibition games to prepare™ each team for their coming OASA tournaments. Port Antrim played their Intermediate "C" All- Ontario in Merlin (near Windsor) and the Port Juniors hope they did well. The Junior Merchants played in their Junior "B" All-Ontario tournament on Saturday. Port allowed only four runs against them in the entire tournament, but that was not enough to win against Simcoe - the 1995 champions. Port's pitching and defensive play were in top form; however, their hitting was not timely enough to take advantage of the runners left on base. In the first game, the Junior Mer- chants met Hickson, a team which played a major role in causing Port's early exit from the Elimination tourna- ment in Oshawa. Port started strong with a Todd Smart home run in the first inning, and never looked back, defeat- ing Hickson 5-0. This win advanced the Junior Merchants into the next round on the winner's side against a strong Junior team from Simcoe. Venning pitched seven innings, strik- ing out five with no walks, five hits, and no earned runs. The second game of the All-Ontario pitted Jeff Card against Rob Schweyer of Simcoe. Schweyer was the ace for the Oshawa Juveniles in the recent Canadi- an Games in B.C. This was a real pitch- er's duel with both striking out nine bat- ters a side. Simcoe had a no-hitter going into the seventh, which was broken by a Ryan Burkholder single. Unfortunate- ly, Port left four base runners stranded (two at third), and lost this close game 2- 0. Card pitched six innings, striking out nine, walking two, allowed six hits and only one earned run. The Port Juniors now faced the Hick- son (Woodstock) team once again, who had just finished eliminating North Bay from the tournament. With some timely hitting, Port took a 2-0 lead in the first Junior Merchants lose out in bid for fourth straight All-Ontario championship and continued to dominate Hickson with a 4-0 win. Venning threw for seven innings, striking out five, allowing one walk, five hits and no earned runs. Port was now facing an uphill battle against the Simcoe team who at this point was undefeated and had to be beaten twice. Card again pitched a strong game and went into the sixth inning with the score tied at 0. Rich Burkholder, on with a walk, stole third and was brought home on a beautiful Card squeeze bunt to go ahead 1-0 In the bottom of the seventh Simcoe started quickly with a triple and were able to bring home two runs to not only win the game, but to also become the 1995 All-Ontario Junior "B" Champi- ons. Even though this was a disappointing loss, the positive was that Port out hit Simcoe eight hits to two and left eight base runners stranded. With this note of optimism, the Merchants look for- ward to meeting Simcoe again next year with a different outcome. Card pitched seven innings, striking out seven, allowing one walk, two hits, and one earned run. The Port Juniors would like to thank Wayne Venning the OASA convenor, and Dave Kay for all their assistance. The team would especially like to thank all the parents who worked so hard dur- ing the day: scorekeeping, announcing, manning the gate, groundskeeping - to make this a very enjoyable and well run tournament. Hitters for the week: Ryan Burkhold- er - four singles, three RBI; Rich Burk- holder - five singles, double, RBI; Card - four singles, 2 RBI; Cochrane - four sin- gles; Empringham - walk, single; Laird - two walks, 3 singles, RBI; MacLennan - three singles, double, RBI; McBride - two walks, single; Moase - single; Smart - single, two doubles, home run, RBI; Vander Slagt - walk, single, home run, RBI. Schedule for the coming week: Mon- day, Aug. 28 - Port Juniors vs Oshawa Juniors at 8:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Aug. 29 - Oshawa Juveniles vs Port Juniors at 8:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Aug. 30 - Port Juniors at Bradford - 8:30 p.m. Dedication, desire earn OASA win for Squirts On August 20, Port Perry/Scugog's Branch 419 Legion Fastball Squirt Rep Team were rewarded for their dedication, desire and hard work over this season as they became O.A.S.A. Provincial Squirt "C" Division Champions. They upset a highly rated Paris team by a 9-0 score in the Championship game and finished the tournament with a 4-1 record. The "Blue and Gold" boys got a good start in the tournament with an 11-3 win over St. Mary's. Our offence was led by Jeff Kane (three for four), Geoff Grieveson (two singles, and a home run), Matt Sker- ratt (single, HR) and Adam Lamb (two singles, one BB, one SAC). Mike LeFort and Mike Wiseman singled. Cory McQuade got aboard on an error and alertly went from one B to three B on Adam's bunt. Tim Jones pitched the win with four hits, one walk and 15 strikeouts. Only one of the St. Mary's runs were earned. In game two on August 19, the team earned the evening off by "mercying" Pic- ton 11-1 on Tim's no-hitter (to go with 11 strikeouts and one walk against 18 bat- ters). Catcher Matt Skerratt contributed two home runs and "Windows" Wiseman had two hits. Singles were by LeFort, Jones and Grieveson. Matt Fraser had some nice cuts in his at-bat. Luke Pilkey earned two BB's and scored our final run on a passed ball. This win put the Legionaires in the driver's seat on the top half of the tourna- ment board as the coaches, players and parents were rewarded for their "in your face" strategy. On August 20, 1995 the team faced the tournament favorite, Paris at 9 a.m. This was a terrific game that both teams could be proud of. Port struck early to put pres- sure on Paris as Lambo drew a lead-off walk, rounded the bases on a SB and PB and scored on "Bullet" LeFort's ground out. With the score still 1-0 for Port in the top of the seventh, Paris tied things with a triple and a single. They pushed ahead 2-1 in the overtime eighth inning on a four base error. Not to be outdone, our gutsy players came back in the bottom of the eighth with Geoff Grieveson's lead off triple and Mike Koury's infield RBI ground out. After a tidy "three-up-three-down" Par- is ninth inning, our heros scored for a 3-2 victory as Mike Wiseman singled to start the inning. He injured his ankle sliding into first and "Devo" Howsam came in to pinch run and got to second on Mike Le- Fort's single to RF. Wiseman then re- entered on the bases, took third on a ground out to 2B and sent our fans into a frenzy by scoring on a WP to complete our comeback. What a win!! Batting stats showed LeFort (two hits), Grieveson (two hits), Kane and Lamb with singles. Tim started off his birthday well with a four hitter win, no walks and 14 strikeouts over the nine innings. Paris then went on to beat Picton in the lower half of the draw, which set up a re- turn engagement against the Legion at 1 p.m. Facing elimination, they pulled out the stops and grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first off Tim. Things looked hopeful for a Port catchup as Jeff Kane singled to start the second and later scored as Tim sin- gled. When Paris went up 4-1 in the third, our coaching strategy kicked in and we went to our courageous bullpen and bench. Mike LeFort and Adam Lamb ate up innings off the rubber and Mike Koury donned the mask. Devon, Luke, "Crock- ett" Akermanis and "Red" Fraser entered the game to help the team re-group. The efforts of all those players allowed Tim and some of our other infielders to rest and cool down for the Championship game. They also burnt out our Paris oppo- nents by keeping them out on a hot mid- day ball field, so that the Paris win came at considerable expense. With the Legionaires and Paris now equal at one loss each, the stage was set for a dramatic 3 p.m. Championship game showdown that never would have been imagined before the tournament let alone at the beginning of the season when it was in doubt whether or not the Legion would be able to field a team. With surprising calmness, the team warmed up and stretched in the usual fashion their nervousness tucked away in- side their uniforms. Their preparations were all done anyway, thanks to their 41 games of experience, numerous practices and lots of one-on-one coaching. Nobody wanted to let Paris walk off with the Championship Red Crests and hardware. The offence gave Tim a quick 3-0 first in- ning lead and our pitching, defence, base running and bench morale would ensure that Paris had no comeback openings. Final score, Port Perry nine, Paris zero!! How sweet it was for all in- volved...veteran players, rookie players, parents, friends and coaches as the count down ran down on the last Paris batter of the game. Our hits were by Adam (two), Mike Le- Fort (single, double and four runs), Tim (two), and "Hawk" Kane (one). Matt Sker- ratt had two walks and a SAC bunt. Cory McQuade made a perfect two strike SAC that helped Mike Koury score. Tim's batteries had been successfully recharged thanks to "Bullet" and "Lambo" and he was overpowering in taking the win on a one hitter, one walk and 11 strikeouts (including the side in the last inning as all his team mates and their par- ents fed him with the energy of their cheering!!) The win will be a birthday present that's hard to top for Tim...and a memora- ble win for a cohesive, enthusiastic and sportsmanlike group of ball players that are extremely fine representatives of Le- gion Branch 419, PPMSA, and Scugog Township. Way to go you "Blue and Gold"! You learned your lessons well!! SPORTS REPORTS will continue in The Weekend Star