Jul 04, 2011 - 04:30 AM
Over the Canada Day long weekend, the Clippers travelled to Stratford for the Ontario Amateur Softball Association (OASA) provincial elimination tournament. Cobourg placed fourth, which means it will host the provincial A championships when the provincial tournament comes to Legion Field in Cobourg from Aug. 6-7.
"The kids played amazing, better than we could have hoped for," said Clippers head coach Mike Gibson. "They gave their heart and soul. It felt pretty good."
The Clippers finished the tournament with a record of four wins and two losses.
In the double knockout format tournament, the Clippers did not get off to the start they were looking for. They lost their opening game against New Hamburg 8-5 on July 1. One more loss and it was an early trip home to Cobourg.
Early the next morning the Clippers bounced back with a convincing win over Oshawa 10-0. They then proceeded to beat Innerkip 7-2. Cobourg then took to the field against league rivals Pickering, and with a grand slam by Clippers centre fielder Hunter Bagshaw, beat Pickering 7-4.
The Clippers next opponent was familiar. The team who beat them to start off the tournament, New Hamburg, was slated to take on Cobourg next. The Clippers, backed by some terrific pitching by Mitchell Gibson, beat New Hamburg 7-2.
Mitchell pitched in all six games the Clippers played. According to Gibson, Cobourg entered the tournament with two pitchers. However, the other pitcher was 'jumping' a lot when pitching, and couldn't correct the illegal move. So Gibson opted to have Mitchell pitch all the games.
"Mitchell pitched well for us, but we definitely need more depth at pitching," said Gibson.
In what would be their final game of the tournament, the Clippers gave up four runs in the first inning against Kitchener/Waterloo. Those four runs cost Cobourg, as they lost 4-0. Twice the Clippers had bases loaded, in the fifth and seventh innings, but couldn't score any runs.
Gibson believes the team was distracted by winning four in a row, and was really pumped. He added Cobourg's concentration level was not where it needed to be to win.
However, overall Gibson was more than impressed with how the team did on the weekend.
"These kids did big things this weekend," said Gibson. "Going down the lineup, from one to nine, everybody contributed. The guys at the bottom of the order got on when we needed them to, and we made great defensive plays. They really started to show, and do the things we go over in practice."
More importantly, Gibson said the team grew closer together.
"I told the guys on the weekend afterwards, when we got here Friday night we weren't as much of a team as we were when we left Sunday," said Gibson. "I am very proud of all of them."
Members of the Clippers who made the trip to Stratford are: James Bruce, Mitchell Gibson, Hunter Bagshaw, Cole Mahoney, Kevin Valdes, Josh Maguire, Riley McAdams, Frank Sullivan, Grant Fry, Matt Forestell, Taylor Hoogwerf and Kyle Haig, as well as a coaching staff made up of Mike Gibson, Chris Bell and Scott Bruce.
Next up for the Clippers is regular season play at Legion Field in Cobourg on July 7. Game time is 6:30 p.m.
