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

s saturday may u 2002 21 economist sun stouffville tribune sports staff photosjoerd witteveen caining a head of steam at sdss markham district high school marauders ball carrier rachel burkholder tries to bull her way past stourrville district secondary school defender irene baxter during action in wednesdays york region athletic association girls rugby contest at stouffville district secondary school the host spartans won the game 53 jasmine geense scored the spartans lone try while katherine wetmore booted a penalty kick for the marauders stouffville slopitch tourney seeks teams another victoria day long weekend is coming up and with that comes the raiders annual slopitch tour nament this years event marks the 20th annual competition which will be held at the memorial park ball diamonds on may 18 and 19 five division titles will be on the line including groupings of mens c d e 35intermediate and 40intermediate tournament officials are still looking for some teams to fill out this years field organizers would also like any alumni teams that have played in the yorkdurham slo- pitch league in the past 20 years to enter the stouffvillebased league had teams from markham and uxbridge play in it since the early 80s entry fee is 250 spn regis tration is 45 for further infor mation contact murray pattenden at 905 6406975 taws breaks in barbie car ashley taws rolled her be anything with barbie formula ford car on to a race track for the first time recently at mosport international raceway near bowmanville ont for a regional race and came away with some positive results the 18yearold stouffville resident guided her highly visible pink race car to the checkered flag in a race on april 27 but went home disappointed the fol lowing day when snow caused the event to be cancelled competing in the canadian sports digest formula ford championship this season with a car fielded by aim autosport taws looked comfortable as she settled in with the car during a practice session on april 26 its sweet taws said of her car lots of power great brakes crisp han dling you can really hang it out with this car and its amazing to feel it danc ing about on the limit ive got some learn ing to do and the team is helping me ashley taws takes checkered flag in april 27 race at mosport with the things i have to do dif ferently from last year but it went well i cant wait for the first championship race when the 2002 canadian formula ford championship gets underway may 17 at mosport conditions will certain ly be warmer and taws will be able to push even harder she is no doubt counting the days a moral win for mcmullen what almost turned into a disappointing outing for gormley race car driver dan mcmullen turned into a moral victory of sorts when he took to the track with his hexis racing team for the second round of the recent french national formula renault championship in ledenon france after a strong practice session in which mcmullen was only 20 seconds behind teammate and pole sitter philippe dumas he experienced some mechanical problems during qualifying with his front end alignment rectifying the problems prior to the feature race mcmullen started from the 20th position on the grid and gradually worked his way through the pack before crossing the finish line in 11th position just one place from earning his first points of the sea son while disappointed in that result mcmullens fortunes changed when racing team manager x a v i e r c o m b e t informed mcmullen a driver ahead of him had been black flagged for a jumped start and disobeyed the order subse quently being disqualified from the race this elevated mcmullen to the final points paying position next up is the street race at the pau grand prix on may 18- 20 dan mcmullen earns first racing points of the season pioneers are ready some ball stouffville s ellis helps markham team mark 20th season in eoba by mike hayakawa sports editor mark munro cannot recall a time when the markham tampa taps pioneers mens baseball team could fill its 25man roster but when the first pitch is thrown out to start a new eastern ontario baseball association campaign the pioneers will have the luxury of fielding a full complement of players this year will be our largest squad in terms of numbers weve never had that before said munro whose club will embark on its 20th campaign today with a 1 pm game against the whitby canadians at milliken park finishing first in the eoba regular season standings over the last two sea sons and advancing to the league finals both years the pioneers once again have high expectations as they embark on their 28game regular season schedule munro is quick to point out that the core group of players from last years team will return intact among the key returnees include the heart of their starting pitching rota tion of steve waggott mark cheeseman paul hadfield and lefty john schade lefthander steve marshall returns in a set up role while steve horsley will be their main closer powerhitting mark petrou returns behind the plate the infield appears solid with the return of powerhitting first baseman jesse dynes and middle infielders shelby nelson and shawn macleish in the outfield matt wagner will i v mark munro pioneers manager notes club has a solid group of returning veterans and three new additions patrol centrefield while mike lloyd will be in right field and jeff fox in left playing key backup roles are reserve outfielder ryan jones middle infielder patrick turner and designated hitter- catcher ian ellis from stouffville in the event of some earlyseason injuries the pioneers added some rein forcements in catcherthird baseman alex bruce who came from whitby outfielder jeff ross and pitcher brian smith from scarborough while the club is aiming to win the eoba crown munro said the team has some bigger objectives this year among them is to compete at the ontario baseball association a division level after finishing second last year and winning the oba b title two years ago were looking forward to having a good year said munro being in our 20th year it would be a significant milestone for us in association with the markham baseball association mother nature foils cougars run at tourney gold the markham cougars under- 16 girls softball team defeated all of their opponents that they met on the ball diamond at the recent pickering heat tournament but the one rival they could nt defeat was mother nature who forced a postponement of the tournament final with high winds and a torrential down pour that took place on the championship day battling nearfreezing temperatures to start the tournament the cougars received a nohit pitching perfor mance from jaclyn dinetz en route to a 150 mercyshortened win over the ajax raiders the cougars continued to get good pitching in their second game as charlsie searle tossed a twohit com plete to help markham rout the quebec city magic 100 facing die london lightning a top- 10 team in the provincial preseason rankings the cougars scored three runs in their last at bat to pull out a 64 win dinetz pitched a solid game in allowing just one earned run on two hits over seven innings to notch her second win of the tourna ment in its final game against the mississauga north tigers the cougars again scored in their last at bat to pull out a 32 victory searle threw a complete game threehitter for the win in addition to her pitching exploits searle made a major contribution at the plate as she hit 583 and 667 with runners in scoring position