The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

tribune august 1 1990 pi 1 mamem- junior merchants ready for shot at canadian crown bruce stapley correspondent photoannette buchkowski safe at second trevor weir on the ground puts his all into making a play at second base but it was too late as marion degroot arrived safely despite being pursued by greg fraser the action took place at stouffville memorial park sunday as the toronto east chapter of the landscape ontario horticultural trades association held its annual softball tournament weir and fraser playfor the atlas landscaping team while deg root plays for degroot landscaping its off to pont rouge quebec monday for the stouffville mer chants as they attempt to follow up their ontario junior fastball championship victory with a national title the merchants who showed unprecedented offensive power in capturing the provincial crown july 8 in grimsby should be even stronger for the canadian show down which runs through next sunday in accordance with the rules governing the tournament the stouffville based squad has added three pick up players chosen from among the best in the province the three are bob- rath rich miaskowsi and barry ellerback rath a 21 year old shortstop- catcher was with the north fred ericksburg squad which won last threat of cancer doesnt slow down carl myers in bid for fastball title the fact of the game of baseball or fastball being so closely pat terned after life itself has been made evident once again this sum mer in stouffville baseball like any other sport is simply a diversion a recreational pursuit to help players and fans alike escape the daily routine but unlike other sports the game of ball has always succeeded in going beyond what happens between the white lines there is a anderson homers pace mites to win ian anderson socked a pair of home runs and carmen auciello and jesse wood starred from the pitching rubber as the stouffville rowntree mites buttermakers dumped port perry 165 at home last wednesday evening auciello and wood who are nor mally ranked third and fourth in the mites pitching rotation were the key to victory according to team spokesman irwin meyer our secondary pitching really carried the load said meyer and ian anderson is really swinging the bat well lately hes going to be a real power next season the kids are all hitting well especially the younger ones since we won our tournament last week end the older players carried us earlier in the season but now the younger kids are coming along as well were feeling very optimistic about the oasa allontario playdowns later on this month chad kerswill brett boyd and mattie eagen are all coming on strong lately the rowntree crew begins their league playoffs tonight against thomhill game time is 630 at the main diamond sportnotes jk bruce stapley romantic aspect to the sport along with what would so often seem to be a mirroring of the very stuff of which our lives consist and so the story of the stouffville merchant juniors and their plucky manager carl myers has come to dominate the stouffville sports scene this summer as a story that combines a teams cinderellalike performance on the field with one mans determination amid a threat ening health crisis for just as carls collection of starryeyed teens were stealing the ontario junior fastball champi onship in grimsby in early july he himself was being diagnosed as having cancer in two parts of his body only one of which has been determined as of yet therell be time spent at sunny- brook hospital in the near future he says in an attempt to bring the condition under control he wants so badly to be able to accompany the team to pont rouge quebec next monday where the merchants will go after the canadian junior crown but he realizes that could be a problem talking to carl however its business as usual when i called him last friday he acknowledged there are good days and bad days some discomfort to be sure but he was trying to be optimistic but then it was right down to brass tacks the team he implied was what was worth talking about i knew we had the nucleus of a hell of a team he led off and i immediately recalled him telling me that back in march dur ing an indoor practice in the whitchurchhighlands public school gym then he had said he was working on a three year plan with the eventual goal of bringing a junior provincial title to stouffville in 1992 when the tournament would likely be held here but dont count us out for this season he had added despite his teams having 13 firstyear juniors on board it turns out he wasnt just whistling dixie these guys have peaked before their time he acknowledged the other day we had the sticks bats and we had the pitching it will get tougher for them next year because everyone will be gunning for them and they will have to keep proving themselves at the same time he continued there will be more out of towners wanting to come and get in on the action quality players looking for a team thats going somewhere this could mean that some of the stouffvillemarkham area play ers will be dropped from the team and thats sure to cause problems but that happens carl has had a few cracks at a national junior championship in the past most recently with his van- dorfbased outfit two summers back but hes never sipped the victory champagne talking to merchants coach fred crawford along with others associ- ated with the team it would appear the boys are heading to quebec with a mission all agree its time carl was rewarded for his tireless efforts throughout the years after all as he also told me back in the gym that rainy march night hes just trying to give the kids a game someones got to do it he said i guess it might as well be me and as carl readies himself to go a few tough months hell have his fastball team right there to give him some much appreciated diver sion as they go after the canadian title then the provincial a champi onship later on this summer fol lowed by their league playoffs win the choko design squirt soft- ball team proved to be less than hospitable hosts last tuesday night sending their port perry visitors packing with a 221 shel lacking pitcher paul kocrt dominated the game tor stouffville striking out 16 port perry batters in seven innings including eight in a row t one point koert was also fiveforfive at the plate with three singles a double and a home run good billy wray reached base on four occasions scoring each time dan tardello was on base six times scoring three runs the choko leadoff spot shared years ontario junior champi onship miaskowski a utility player with a hot bat is currently playing for the highly regarded york sun dance mens fastball team as well as the scarborough juniors barry ellerback a 19 year old pitcher was chosen from the same invernary indians junior club that merchants hurlerslugger scott evans almost joined this spring ellerbeck and evans were both pick ups for the st catharines team which won the canadian midget title last season in victoria bc merchants coach fred crawford feels the trio will give his team some maturity as all three played for canadian title contenders last summer that gives us five players how have played at the national level as scott evans and my son craig went to victoria last year and ellerback gives us our third top pitcher to go with scott and byron baranieski youve got to have three pitchers if you are going to win a national champi onship crawford hopes his hitters can show the same firepower they unleashed at grimsby when they get to quebec the pitching and the hitting all came together at the allontarios we had five players bat 444 or better scott evans 529 john batten 519 tim evans 455 ryan mclntyre 455 jason yoshi- da444 crawford feels his teams suc cess is even more impressive when it is considered that there are 13 firstyear juniors on the roster i wanted them to place fifth or better at grimsby he said but when we knocked off last years champs from north fredericks burg in our third game i felt we could take the whole thing crawford is appealing to the people of stouffville and markham to help his team raise the 20000 necessary to finance the trip to quebec wed appreci ate any help we can get the merchants took to the field last wednesday night nipping the oshawa juniors 43 in a league contest mclntyre s short fly to centre sent scott evans scampering home with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh and final inning evans had also scored the tying run in the fifth on a triple by jamie showers evans and baranieski primed for the national competition last thursday as the two combined to pitch a 20 shutout for the burlington ambassadors against richmond hill in a senior level game i wanted to get them into a senior game for a warmup for quebec said crawford the merchants will play two more league games this week before travelling to quebec mon day 49