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pt4 weekender september 16- 1995 st french has a ball on the diamond sport notes when mark french returns to the ball dia mond next spring hes going to have a gigantic mountain to climb in terms of topping what he accomplished this season the 13yearold stouf- fville resident and son of bob french the well known softball coach arid umpire has picked him self up a reputation in softball circles as far away as the atlantic provinces his talents were evident during the season in league play at the provincial and east ern canadian levels when it all wound down he had the hardware to prove it french who has an ontario amateur softball association oasa championship to his cred it while piaying in stouf- fville opted to play with the richmond hill a pee- wee rep team this season along with stouffville players david anthony andrew eagar and ian mcdougall the rich mond hill squad which was coached by bob french experienced great success during the regu lar season in league play with french pitching two shutout victories the team placed third in the oasa peewee elimiria- tions in kemptville in july french was then picked up by the championship team from waterford to accompany them to the eastern canadian pee wee fastball champi onships in enfield ns the last weekend in august in nova scotia all french did was pick up three wins as well as the batting trophy with an incredible 700 average as the waterford crew won the silver medal los ing out to ontarios other entry in the 12team com petition he was named most valuable player for his all round play and needless to say was one of nine players out of the 180 participating to be chosen to the tournament all star team in game one french knocked in both his teams runs with a double as they edged prince edward island 21 he came in to hold the oppo sition hitless over the final five innigs as his team overcame a 51 deficit to down the nova scotia 1 team 65 in game two in game three against new brunswick 2 he took to the pitching rubber in the fourth with his team trailing 60 but surrendered only two hits in four innings as water ford came back to win 19- 6 he also banged out a triple a double and a sin gle with the round robin completed each team faced the prospect of elim ination in the single knockout playoff round the first playoff contest saw frenchs team mercy newfoundland 90 in game five he pitched four innings of twohit ball in another mercyshortened affair a 120 win over nova scotia 2 french played third base in his teams 191 romp over new brunswick 2 in the next match which qualified them for the champi onship tilt french was brought in to pitch with his team trailing 30 in the big one and while he allowed only two hits the rest of the way the dam age had been done as the score remained the same tournament day close to 170 seasoned hacks will take to the dia monds at the town park today for the annual mon day night mens lob pitch league finals this is a must for people who get tired of all the rah rah win at all costs dump on the umps stuff which often occurs in other ball leagues even for the championship tournament there are no umpires in this league its just like when you were a kid playing work ups when outs and safes were decided by the pitch er and the catcher the league which has been in operation in stouffville since the mid 1970s is a shining exam ple of what can happen when adults decide that just to be on the field is the important thing sure you get the occa sional bit of tension and players have been known to express frustration at their own shortcomings but its a delight to play in the league and a fun fast moving spectactle to watch see you at the park v- arriving safely ashlane farms base runner kaitlyn smith right makes a safe arrival at second base as kaitlyn wild receives a relay throw during action in last weekends whitchurch stouffville softball association housleague play offs at the town park diamond photosjoerd witteveen squirts settle for second in tourney claremont barkeys auction squirt boys team won four of its six games played to take the sil ver medal at the whitchurch- stouffville softball association wssa season ending tourna ment at the stouffville town park sept 9 to 10 the barkey bunch were finally stopped 1312 by vandorf in the championship final strong hitting efforts came from the bats of adam tran double single danny wilk mike lehman levi barkey josh wiles chris bennett and adam kelly singles bfii the team started off with a 12- 4 win over as construction mark carruthers tripled with chris carruthers banging a dou ble wiles had a triple and double and wilk singled to key a 54 win over betz pools in game two in their third outing the clarmeont crew bounced tim hortons 132 with triples com ing from barkey and wiles benriet contributed with a dou ble claremont fell 134 to vandorf in game four but bounced back to down betz pools 82 in their fifth outing as chris carruthers homered and tran tripled the win put claremont in the final against vandorf porter cycles his way to the top of the mountain by bruce stapley correspondent terry porter is out to get the wheels turning in stouflville the 38yearold area resident is an avid outdoors enthusiast with a keen interest in moun tain biking while he has expe rienced considerable competi tive success on an individual basis since taking up the sport 14 years ago he is just as dedi cated to drawing others to the trails porters credentials as an advocate for this growing recre ation and fitness activity are impressive he has competed in numerous ontario cup and canada cup series events and was second in the veterans 35 and over class at the annual canada cup event this year as part ofa team that includ ed jon barnes and jube leonard of stouflville and rob clements and ian montford of markham porter placed second at the recent second annual 1995 gatorade 24 hours of indiglo mountain bike compe tition porters squad was one of 149 teams that took part in the event which included 777 rid ers the team called boyds nite riders was named after porters employer boyds source for sports in stouflville assembled just weeks before the race the nite riders com pleted 320 kilometres in 24 hours and 13 minutes in what turned out to be the woodstock of mountain biking the team competed without porter at the provincial champi onships at beaver valley over the labour day weekend with barnes placing second in the senior 1926 age category leonard recently won the overall 2635 age group title in the ontario challenge race series winning two of the four races in the series the nite riders plan to hit the trails again for a 12hour team event to be held oct 28 at cedar grove along with his wife loren porter has been running a com petitivesocial mountain biking series on tuesday nights for several years at the cedar grove site which is located off reesor rd sojuth of hwy 7 the weekly outing routinely please see page 15