SPORTS & LEISURE Rebels top Lords in wild ball final Down to their last strike, the Georgetown Rebels scored twice in the bottom of the eighth inning to rally yet again on Thursday and win their third consecutive Halton Secondary School Athletic Association senior girls' softball championship, defeating Nelson 8-7 at Ireland Park in Burlington. The Rebels had won all 11 of their games heading into the Halton final, yet were shut down for the most part yesterday until an eventful sixth inning, when they trailed Nelson 5-1. Nelson is coached by former Rebel field boss Jim Hall, who oversaw several championships during the 1990s at GDHS. Controversy still surrounds the outcome of Thursday's final as Hall filed a protest during the game when it was ruled by the umpire that his final remaining pitcher was ineligible to continue because the coach visited the mound twice to speak with his player. A ruling is expected today (Friday). Without any of his regular pitchers left, the Rebels scored four times to tie the score and eventually won the contest in extra innings-- and not without plenty of drama. Nelson, which finished the regular season at 5-1, scored a run in the top of the eighth to take a 7-6 lead and then got the first two Rebels out in the bottom of the inning. Georgetown batter Jessica Haffner had a two-strike count on her before fouling off three pitches, then drove Melissa Eady in from second base with the tying run. Winning pitcher Abby Lyons, who is also the team's home-run leader, drove in the winning run with a single up the middle. "What's great about this team is that everyone can hit, everyone can play defence and we just have a good allaround ball team," Lyons, a Grade 11 student, said. In Wednesday's semi-final at the Georgetown Fairgrounds, the Rebels scored two in the second inning and four more in the fifth against previously undefeated T.A. Blakelock of Oakville and prevailed 6-2. Lyons broke the game open with a three-run homer to the opposite field in that fifth inning. The visitors scored two unearned runs in the sixth to make it interesting, but Georgetown's defence and pitching were otherwise solid through the rest of the game. Hill sharp in 5-3 loss Shawn Hill of Georgetown turned in his second decent start in a row for the Washington Nationals on Tuesday night in Atlanta, but ended up taking the loss in a 5-3 defeat to the Braves. Hill, 25, was making his second Major League start this season after missing the entire 2005 campaign due to Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. And it was an eventful appearance for the righthanded hurler as he was struck with a batted ball by SHAWN Atlanta's Edgar HILL Renteria in the second inning and then a shattered bat belonging to Marcus Giles of the Braves nearly struck Hill on the mound. On both plays Hill was uninjured and the hitter was thrown out at first base. Hill gave up seven hits and four runs, striking out two and walking two. He left after six innings with the Braves leading 4-3. In the fifth inning, Hill set down the Braves' vaunted 3-4-5 hitters, Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones and Adam LaRoche, in order, although LaRoche did hit his 10th homer of the season in the third inning off the foul pole. In total, Hill threw 94 pitchers, 55 of which were strikes. "My location the whole game wasn't the way I wanted it to be," Hill said on the Nationals' website. "I started throwing a little more carefully, coming around a little bit, as the game went on." Hill was called up two weeks ago from Washington's triple-A affiliate in New Orleans as a replacement in the Nats' starting rotation for John Patterson, who was placed on the 15day disabled list with a sore arm. Hill has impressed Nationals' manager Frank Robinson enough with a 2.77 ERA and just four earned runs allowed over 13 innings to get the nod to start again at home this Sunday against the Philadelphia Phillies. Hill made his big-league debut against the Phillies on June 29, 2004, when he gave up eight runs over three innings and was handed the loss. One of the few times a T.A. Blakelock player made it to third base safely happened during the sixth inning of the Halton high school senior girls' softball playoff game Wednesday at the Georgetown Fairgrounds. Georgetown Rebels' third baseman Abby Lyons (14) had belted a threerun homer in the bottom of the fifth to give the hosts a 6-0 lead and they went on to win 6-2. Yesterday the Rebels topped Nelson Lords 8-7 in the Halton final. Photo by Eamonn Maher The upper hand Close to 300 competitors took part in last weekend's fifth annual Banzai Open hosted by Rampulla's Martial Arts Centre at Christ the King High School. Several topranked Canadian athletes with international experience were on hand in various styles of martial arts, competing in youth and adult age groups. Here Rampbulla's Mike Last (in white), a first kyu shotokan brown belt, spars with second dan shotokan black belt Dylan Rampulla. Photo by Yves Desjardins