New # 1 Niagara Take On Defending Champs and # 2 Tavistock
[VIRGIL, ONTARIO] – When Niagara Snappers face off against Tavistock Merchants at the Snapper Shootout tournament tonight at 9:15 pm in Virgil, Ontario, it will be a battle of the top two ranked ISC II teams.
While the defending champions from Tavistock were rated #1 in the preseason rankings a month ago, news that they’ve lost three key players was enough to drop them to #2 in the latest rankings.
The top ranked Niagara Snappers failed to qualify for the ISC II Tournament of Champions, though a number of their players played key roles as pick-ups for other teams. Determined to get back to the show, the Snappers went out in the off-season and signed the top pitcher in the ISC II division, Cory Costello, who broke the ISC II strikeout record for a T of C, leading his hometown Micksburg Twins to a 3rd place finish.
The ink is barely dry on the latest set of rankings released today by the ISC II ranking committe, so we’ll see how many of them got it right. Are the Niagara Snappers the top dog to be reckoned with, or has the memory of Tavistock’s 2006 ISC T of C championship faded from the collective memory of the voters too quickly.
We’ll keep an eye out for that score and post it here.