On Saturday July 23rd, I was invited to be at Bluewater Park in Wiarton for the opening day of the Ontario Amateur Softball Association Midget Fastball Championship.
I saw 4 games that day and it’s remarkable what transpired between then and now.
First of all, the Wiarton Red Devils were the tournament host team and coming off the Elimination Tournament Championship which made them the # 1 seed.
However, for a variety of reasons, the Red Devils never got it together and dropped their opener 6-3 to the Owen Sound Selects and then were unceremoniously eliminated in their next match by Sydenham.
Meanwhile, the Stratford Memorials, after winning their first game, gakked on a 2-0 lead in their second game with the eventual tournament champions from Napanee and looked petulant as they evaporated from contention in short order.
A scant three weeks later, it was the Red Devils & the Memorials advancing to the Canadian Midget Fastball Championship Final at Fredericton, New Brunswick.
In the Gold Medal match, Travis Jones belted two homers & drove in 5 runs for Wiarton and pickup Austin Brown continued his solid play both on the field and at the plate, as the Red Devils claimed the 2011 National Midget Championship with a convincing 8-2 victory.
Such is sports.
Maybe it was just a coincidental off day in late July for both teams in Wiarton, but three weeks later, it’s the Red Devils with the Gold & Stratford with the Silver at the Canadian Midget Fastball Championship.
I’m Fred Wallace