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stouffville suntribuneu thursday july 12 2007 17 stouffville suntribune sports stoufiville storm players and coaches celebrate winning the ontario bantam elimination fastball tournament in napanee sunday the sweep of the weekend tourney included two wins over arch rival napanee both teams qualify for the eastern canadian championships next month its the third straight trip to the eastern event for the stouffville squad ows throuah ontario teams stouffville bantams sweep provincials head to newfoundland by mike hayakawa staff writer over the past six years the stouffville storm and napanee express have developed a nice little rivalry on the softball diamond storm head coach mike hef fernan described the intensity as reaching the point where players representing the two teams dont socialize on the field when the two teams renewed acquaintances last weekend in napanee at the 16team provincial bantam elimination tournament the rivalry almost boiled over fortunately for the storm they were able to focus on the task at hand to go undefeated climaxed with a 71 win over the express in sundays a final tilt a first inning tworun homer by robert kay set the tone for the storm as they erupted for four runs and never looked back bruce crin- gan worked the first 4 13 innings to earn the win while travis connor relieved him the hostilities became evident during saturday evenings first meeting between the two clubs with the storm nursing a 71 lead in their half of the fifth inning stouffville added to the margin when third baseman scott riepert belted a tworun triple taking a gamble heffernan who was coaching at third thought riepert could leg out an inside-the- park home run players ejected riepert collided with express catcher david pratt who was guarding home plate as he awaited a relay throw after the collision the two players exchanged words play ers from both benches came onto the field but no physical exchanges took place both players along with storm pitcher bruce cringan who tried to intervene were ejected more important for the storm though was that they won 93 to gain a berth in sundays final and another trip to the eastern cana dian championships the two final ists represent ontario at the eastern nationals every year caleb bayliss worked the first four innings to earn the win offen sively heffernan said his hitting was distributed throughout the bat ting order v it was a highly competitive game heffernan said i think since the game was played in front of a home crowd napanee didnt want to be shown up but both of these teams storm and express have battled it out for the last six years weve virtually been the top two teams in ontario the trip to the eastern cana dians in torbay nfld will be the third straight for the storm despite the mild hostilities that broke out in saturdays tilt heffer nan was proud of the way his club performed in the double elimina tion competition the boys played excellent he said of his charges we went in there and played almost flawless ball stouffville began the tourna ment friday with a 52 win over straffordville the following day it recorded victories- over newmarket 41 and walkerton 74 to set the stage for the first meeting against napanee its been a near perfect storm season that has them sitting atop the durham york softball league standings with an undefeated record our key overall has been our depth our experience and matu rity the guys have been focused this year he said as well he was quick to praise the veteran leadership provided by cringnan and catcher kay both of these guys have led this team theyve kept the guys in line heffernan said looking ahead to the eastern canadians aug 2326 heffernan is optimistic his club can return home with a medal in preparing for the champion ships heffernan has already filled one of two pickups hes allowed by bringing in tyler kuntz from walkerton tyler can play infield and out field and he can pitch a little as well and he has a great stick heffernan said two years ago napanee picked him up and he haunted us at the eastern canadian championships napanee isnt worried napanee is doing the same adding an unnamed righthanded pitcher and middle infielder to its roster express head coach al whitfield who was also thrown out of satur days game following the brouhaha with the storm told the kingston whigstandard hes not worried about meeting stouffville again his brother and assistant coach bob whitfield was tossed sunday for arguing an illegal pitch call express pitcher justin mac- donald questioned whether the stouffville players knew how to slide in the same story let the rivalry continue luv a pizza tes new summer hours great food lllo mon thurs loll friday 311 saturday closed sundays 13 felcher blvd 9056420991 battantrae