This year’s playoffs reminiscent of the 1990s
In 2018, pitching is once again playing a pivotal role in the playoffs as Matt Leahy out-duelled his younger brother, Abe, to lead Terry’s Gas past Kangas Equipment Repair In the hotly contested three out of five semi-finals.
Matt pitched only three games for Terry’s but was undefeated, posting a 3-0 record. Abe played the iron-man role, pitching all five games for Kangas, resulting in a 2-3 record.
Leading the offence for Terry’s were Jason Cain, Aaron Trude, Dan Burnham and the ageless Garry Manley. Swinging the potent bats for Kangas were Dan Hennessy, Abe Leahy, Core VanHooser and Luke Robinson.
Thus far, in the first game of the bestof-seven finals, pitching is also playing a prominent role as Steve McNaughton of Terry’s with nine strikeouts edged Chris VanVolkenberg of Marshall’s who had eight strikeouts by a score of 3-2 in what promises to be a very competitive quest for the Taylor Trophy, emblematic of local softball supremacy. Garry Manley hit an RBI single in the eighth inning to give Terry’s the close victory.
Such a scenario is par for the course in our league where low-scoring, wellpitched games are the norm in the postseason.
The 1980s featured pitchers’ duels between Brian Condon and Randy Fife and the 1990s maintained the status quo showcasing pitching battles between Wayne Wells and Glenn Crowe.
The early ‘90s marked the end of the ICG reign as they captured the Taylor Trophy in 1990 and 1991.
In 1992 Greenbank of Oshawa were the champions.
From 1993 to 2002, Zeke’s Thunder won the crown 4 times and Mr. Lube started a dynasty as they claimed softball superiority six times. Capacity crowds came to see the evenly-matched finals with outstanding pitching by both Wayne Wells of Mr. Lube and Glenn Crowe of Zeke’s Thunder.
Nevertheless, there was no dearth of hitting in that decade with great batters like Gary Nelson, the speedy Scott Wasson, Steve Connelly, Tom Jopling and the Terrion brothers.
The game of fastball has always been centred around strong pitching, and in our league, especially at playoff time, it is as perennial as the grass; this year being no exception.
After a seven-day hiatus to accommodate the ISC World Fastball Tournament in Kitchener, our league resumes action Tuesday with the second game of the finals between Marshall’s and Terry’s Gas Bar slated for 7 p.m. at the George (Red) Sullivan East City Bowl.
Congratulations to Jim Bell and Gary Holbrook, the 16th and 17th players to have their jersey enshrined on the Fence of Honour.
The softball community mourns the loss of Gary Dalliday, a great player in our league during the 1960s and a constant supporter of our game.