POS at SPO & SPN Provincials

The SPO Provincials took place in London Aug.16-18 and POS entered the Masters 35E division with high hopes. Unfortunately things did not turn out as expected with POS ending the tourney going 0-3 with losses to The Mushballers 11-6 (Fri @ 4:45pm), the Mad Dogs 16-5 (Sat @ 10:15am), and Diamond Kings 17-6 (Sat @ 1:00pm) all on diamond #4 at the Southwest Complex. The group had a great time at the hotel with the pool so the weekend wasn’t all bad.


SPN Provincials were held in Niagara over the Labour Day long weekend (Aug.30-Sep.1) and POS was hoping for a better outcome in the Masters 35E division. Things did not start well for POS as they took on the Sultans Fri @ 2:30pm on PC#6 and were defeated 15-3 as well as losing Mark in the bottom of the first on a throw from RF to 3B which injured his arm and later was determined at the hospital as a tear in the elbow tendon. Game 2 had POS taking on Whisky John’s Bucs Sat @ 9:00am on PC#3 and the bats were alive in this one as POS evened their record at 1-1 with a 18-12 win. The final game of the round robin was at 12:00pm on PC#2 against the Knights and POS came back from an 11-5 deficit to take the win 16-13. After the round robin POS had a 2-1 (+2) record which had them tied for 2nd with the Town & Country A’s but the next tie-breaker (overall run differential) had the A’s at a -1 with POS at a -3 so that placed POS in 3rd place heading in Sunday’s quarterfinal matches. The 10:00am game on PC#6 was against the Chiefs who finished 2nd in the other division and unfortunately the POS bats were silent most of the game with some of the harder hits being caught by the Chiefs’ good defensive plays…in the end POS was no match for the Chiefs losing 12-1. On a positive note, this was the best finish by POS at the Provincials finishing 7th so they’ll be looking to improve on that in 2014! A couple of great weekends were had by all of the POS players and families.



POS Rosters for the Provinicals:

Wayne Cosby (Greenthumb) – Coach/Sub (Niagara)

George Douma (A’s) – Coach/Sub (London)

Derek Ackford (Xtreme Contracting) – Coach (Niagara)

Todd Boisvert (Greenthumb) (London/Niagara)

David Hatt (Greenthumb) (London)

Paul Power (Greenthumb) (Niagara)

Bob Peppler (Storm) (London/Niagara)

Joey Pilkey (Storm) (London/Niagara)

Ashley Teeter (Falcons) (London/Niagara)

Cas Litwin (Falcons) (London/Niagara)

Sean Dunn (Falcons) (London)

Jeff Hutchinson (Bradley Motors Shifters) (London/Niagara)

Mike Anderson (Xtreme Contracting) (London/Niagara)

Duncan McDonald (St. Louis Devils) (London/Niagara)

Ryan Rayner (St. Louis Devils) (London/Niagara)

Tim Sullivan (not in WMSPL) (London/Niagara)

Mark Brown (not in WMSPL) (Niagara)

POS loses in Final of SPO tourney in Oshawa

Having got their Provincial qualifier for London in last month’s SPO tourney, POS was looking to get some more practice in with the 2nd qualifier last weekend.  The weather forecast was hot and sunny all weekend which was a change to the previous 2 wet tourneys POS had played in.  To start the Saturday games POS took on a familiar rival in the Silverbacks on diamond #6 at 8:30am.  POS jumped out to an early lead and with solid defense cruised to an 11-4 win.  The 2nd game was against The Bulldogs at 11:00am on #2 and after seeing the hitting by The Bulldogs through the order POS decided to try the Xtreme Rover outfield plan and it messed with the hitters allowing only 3 runs to be scored while POS put up 16 for the win.  The 3rd game on Saturday had the two 2-0 teams playing at 2:45pm on #2 to determine who will be the #1 seed heading into Sunday’s elimination games.  POS was taking on the Rats who had easily won their first 2 games scoring 20+ runs in each game.  The game became heated at times with the Rats not liking the game chatter by Todd behind the plate and after a few hits by POS up the middle the Rats pitcher accused POS for intentionally hitting it there.  That brought a confrontation at home plate the following inning as the Rats pitcher called his shot to hit it back up the middle while standing between Todd and Jeff in the batter’s box…he did hit it back to Hatt on the mound with 2 or 3 hops which was easily handled for the out.  The final was 7-3 for the Rats as they had one better inning than POS.

Sunday’s elimination games had POS taking on the 3rd place team (Triple Threat) from the other group who had a familiar face with Josh playing LF…many of the POS players hadn’t seen Josh since he played in Uxbridge with them last year.  The 9:00am game on #2 had POS continue with some timely hits and solid defense to take this one by a score of 16-4.  The semi-final game at 11:45am on #1 had POS taking on The Dodgers who were the 1st place finisher in the other group going 3-0 on Saturday.  During the early innings POS capitalized on some defensive mishaps by The Dodgers and took this one by a score of 15-5.  So, the final was set with POS taking on the Rats again at 2:15pm on #2 as they cruised to the final with mercy wins in both their Sunday games.  Not sure what both teams expected in this one following the heated match from Saturday but cooler heads prevailed and it was another low scoring game between the 2 teams.  POS turned a triple play in the bottom of the 6th which unfortunately wasn’t enough to ignite the offense in the top of the 7th for the comeback as POS lost to the Rats by a score of 6-3. 

POS finished the weekend with a 4-2 record, 64 runs for and 29 runs against.  Next up for SPO tourneys and POS will be the Provincials in London on August 16-18.  Prior to that POS will have one final tune-up in the Diamond Duster at the end of July in Uxbridge.

POS Roster for the Tournament:

George Douma (A’s) – Coach/Sub

Todd Boisvert (Greenthumb)

David Hatt (Greenthumb)

Bob Peppler (Storm)

Joey Pilkey (Storm)

Cas Litwin (Falcons)

Sean Dunn (Falcons)

Jeff Hutchinson (Bradley Motors Shifters)

Derek Ackford (Xtreme Contracting)

Mike Anderson (Xtreme Contracting)

Duncan McDonald (St. Louis Devils)

Ryan Rayner (St. Louis Devils)

Mark Brown (not in WMSPL)

POS come up a bit short at Provincals

POS went into the Provincal Championships with high hopes, however it was not meant to be this year, with a record of 1 win and two loses, they were eliminated from the tournament Saturday afternoon. The only highlights of the weekend were a shutout win in game two and a good time at the hotel with the guy's and there families Friday and Saturday night. Next year will be a different story, as they will be more experienced and ready to tackle the much younger teams that play in this tournament.

POS makes it to the Semi's

POS had a good tournament until they meet a very good hitting team in the Semi finals. In the round robin games POS destroyed their opponents 21 to 7 in the first game, 30 to 2 in the second game, and 15 to 2 in the third game. On Sunday morning in the quarter finals the played "Team Chris" and won 17 to 4. However in the Semi's they fell to the Red Hawks 21 to 9. All in all it was a good weekend and another good result.

POS Roster for the Tournament:
Wayne Cosby (Greenthumb/Woodland) - Coach
Todd Boisvert (Greenthumb/Woodland)
Jeremy Gardiner (Greenthumb/Woodland)
David Hatt (Greenthumb/Woodland)
Scott Chislett (Greenthumb/Woodland)
Bob Barron (Greenthumb/Woodland)
George Douma (Attractions)
Joey Pilkey (Storm)
Bob Peppler (Storm)
Scott Burggraf (Coulas)
Chris Christie (Direct Elevator)
Kevin Zarosky (not in WMSPL)
Reg Eldridge (Attractions – last year)

POS comes up with a championship on their first try

Considering that the team was put together in a week and the wet weather they dealt with on Saturday, POS had a great showing in the SPO Eastern Ontario Championships in Oshawa this weekend. With a perfect record of 6 and 0, POS represented the WMSPL extremely well. Round robin games against The Misfits, then the NY Generals, plus a default win on Saturday, put them in 1st place going into the playoff rounds. First up in the quarters were The Badgers who were disposed of by a 9 to 4 final. In the semis, POS faced the NY Generals again, this time around POS pulled out a 13 to 9 victory. That win sent POS to the finals, where they faced a local Oshawa team with a very familiar name: Sluggers N' Chuggers. It was a very close game until the 5th inning, when POS got their bats going and batted around scoring 6 runs in the process. Make the final 13 to 9 with the TSN turning point being Joey's double play in the 5th inning. Four teams from the WMSPL were represented on the POS team: Greenthumb/Woodland, Signage Source Storm, Attractions, and Bradley Motors Shifters. Of the 12 players on POS, most play or have played in the WMSPL. The roster consisted of coach Wayne Cosby, Manager Todd Boisvett, our pitcher Dave Hatt, and players Scott Chislett, Paul Power, Bob Barron, George Douma, Joey Pilkey, Lance Groskopf, Bob Peppler, Jeff Hutchinson, Jeremy Gardiner and Reg Eldridge.