Jacks strike OASA silver

Congratulations to the Port Perry Lake Scugog Lumberjacks Bantam Fastball team on their silver medal in the O.A.S.A.’s Provincial Elimination tournament held in Napanee last week. This feat accomplishes what the team set out to do - qualify for a berth in the Eastern Canadian Championships in Nova Scotia and represent their home town with pride and good sportsmanship.

Port Perry faced the Lyn Lightening in their first outing. Lyn is a new team to this competition and tried their best to compete with one of the strongest lineups in the province. The Jacks took an early lead and never looked back, Matt Reid and Jeff St. Pierre both hit out of the park homers in this game giving the team their first victory.

By far the best game of the tournament for the Jacks was against the host team the Napanee Express. The Express are no strangers to the Port Perry team as this rivalry has made for some exciting ball over the years.

The Jacks took an early two run lead as Brandon Griffen cashed in Port’s first RBI of the game on a hard hit single pass the second baseman and later came around to score on a field’s choice. After 4 innings of play the Express lead the game 3-2 as they continued to employ their bunt and run strategy successfully. In the top of the 5th Jeff St. Pierre smacked another out of the park homerun to give the Jacks a 4-3 lead.

In the bottom of the final inning with one out and runners on third and first for the Express their clean-up hitter crushed a fly ball to centre field. Cody Till made an impressive catch and threw the ball in as the Napanee runner on third tagged up and headed for home. The ball was cut off and thrown home where Layne O’Halloran did a great job blocking the plate and making the tag for a game winning double play.

A win in the next game would give the Jacks a ticket to Nova Scotia, a loss would lead to an uphill battle for the team. The Teeswater Otters were their next opponent; this was the team that joined the Jacks two years ago in the Canadians and took the gold. Port Perry was determined to get the job done and got off to an early lead in the first as Ryan Jones reached base on a hard hit to left field, Matt Reid followed up with a home run to deep centre field. In the 3rd Ryan once again crossed the plate giving Port a 3-0 lead. After solid base hits by Dylan Smith and Jesse Simmons, Layne O’Hallloran pounded a triple to centre field in the 4th chalking up a few more runs and leaving little hope for the Otters to get back into this game. The game was called by way of mercy as the Lumberjacks take a decisive 8-1 win in 6 innings of play.

The Jacks once again needed to face the Otters to see who would take the gold. This game was a close one, with the Otters taking it by a slim margin of 5-4. Defensively the Jacks didn’t have their best outing giving up 4 unearned runs in the game.

Port Perry had one final kick at the can as the Otters needed a double knockout to win and they started out with taking a one run lead into the third inning. The Jacks tied up the game in the 4th when Cody Till had an infield hit to score their first run of the game. In the fourth a few errors gave the Otters a 5-1 lead. Clayton Robinson managed two solid hits in the game but to no avail as on both occasions he remained stranded on the bases.

In the Jack’s final inning Layne O’Halloran hit another triple to left field cashing in 2 but that was all for Port Perry, as the Otters won by a score of 5-3 and the Jack’s have to settle for the silver medal once again.

Pitching all games for the Jacks was Jeff St. Pierre, a total of 30 innings striking out 44, walking 3, and giving up 6 earned runs. Offensively, Layne O’Halloran was on fire hitting 588 and picking up 9 RBI in the lead off position.