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Sunday, October 12, 2008
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Fort team joins local fastball league |
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Written by JASON PETERS, Citizen staff
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Tuesday, 13 May 2008 |
The Treasure Cove Casino Men’s Fastball League is expanding its boundaries.
The league, scheduled to begin its 2008 season next week, is welcoming a team from Fort St. James into the fold. The Treasure Cove loop has attempted to add out-of-town clubs in the past and the effort has not always met with success. League president Jeff Hill is optimistic this latest venture won’t carry the risk of a long-shot gamble.
“The biggest problem we were always having was (teams) not having the numbers when they came to town,” Hill said. “I actually made it very clear that if they were going to participate that they had to have a certain number of players on their roster before the season started, which they’ve done.”
The Fort St. James club should be strong at the most important spot on the field -- the pitching rubber. The team will look to talented throwers Smithy Abraham and Chris Prince to keep opposing batters off balance.
“They’ll be a really good team -- they won’t be pushovers at all,” Hill said.
The other four teams in the league are all back from last year -- the playoff champion Shooters Pub Spiritkeepers, the BX Pub Express, the Black Bears and the Black Sox. The season will step to the plate next Tuesday, May 20, with a 7 p.m. clash between the Black Bears and Black Sox.
All games will be played at Spruce City Stadium. Game nights will be Tuesday through Friday. The regular season will wrap up on July 11.
The Spiritkeepers, based on their offensive punch alone, should have a great chance to repeat as playoff champions. They boast three of the most lethal hitters in Canada -- Chad Ghostkeeper, Evan Potskin and Glenn Ormsby. Ghostkeeper and Potskin will both attend a national team tryout camp that starts this coming weekend in Florida. Ormsby, meanwhile, swung a bat for the Express last season but jumped to the Spiritkeepers this season largely because his employer is the team sponsor.
While the Express did lose a powerful presence at the plate, the team may feature the best pitching combination in the league. Hill, a BX mainstay on the rubber, is once again in uniform and he’ll be joined by a guy familiar to local fastball followers, Garrett Murphy.
Murphy, who first played in the league in 1988, spent the past seven years living in Smithers. Most recently, he had been playing tournament ball for the Moricetown Cubs. Now, he’s back in Prince George and is ready to fire strikes for the Express.
“Garrett will, by far, hold his own,” said the BX’s Dave Koch. “He has still got his control. Jeff might throw a little bit harder than him but Garrett has got a good change-up and his accuracy is a lot better than Jeff’s.
“And I don’t think any of the guys in the league have seen him in seven years,” Koch added. “Maybe some of the guys off (the Black Sox) may have seen him because they went to a tournament out in Moricetown where Garrett was throwing. But really, not a lot of guys have seen him so it’s almost like they’re seeing a new pitcher for the first time.”
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 October 2008 )
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