Well to my great surprise the Adult Fast Pitch Tournament ended on Saturday, September 20 with an overwhelming upset defeat of the favourite: Grand Valley Physiotherapy 16, Wightman Telecom 9. The girl catcher for Physio, who never seemed like a strong hitter, got a surprising triple, hit all the way to the left field wall. And on another play, the old double steal, when the runner on third took a big lead off waiting to see if she would throw to second, instead she threw to third and picked him off; I never expected that. Wightman’s defense was shaky all afternoon with even the coach making an error. They did not play easy.
A heavy rain began during the sixth inning. They kept playing and I was not about to leave. It would have ruined the tournament if they had to end the game prematurely and give the “victory” to Physio when everyone was expecting Wightman’s bats to explode any minute. But the sun came back out, a full rainbow appeared across the outfield, and Wightman was held to three runs in the no mercy clause last half of the seventh. Everyone in the stands applauded. There were no hard feelings, and the Champs were effusively congratulated in the shake around.
The trophys were brought out and the teams lined up, one on the third and the other on the first base line and a photographer came to take pictures. Wightman got a trophy for season champion and the other went to Physio for winning the tournament. If Wightman, with a 10 and 2 record for the season, had also won the tournament as expected, they would have been the only team lined up and would have been given both trophys and it would not have been as good. Maybe next season there will be some real competition between these two teams.
peter kocal