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Around the Horn: Tough test awaits Explorers at ISC World Tournament
By Greg Chalfin

The final tournament of the fastpitch softball season awaits the No. 13 Midland Explorers in this weekend’s ISC World Tournament held in Kitchener, Ont.

Another tough draw awaits them too.

As at last weekend’s ASA Men’s Major Fastpitch tournament, the Explorers find a potential second-round matchup with the No. 3 Orillia Quaker Riversharks a distinct possibility.

At the ASA tournament, Orillia defeated Midland 3-0 in the second round and held the Explorers to just three hits.

“It really doesn’t matter because you have to play everybody to win (the tournament),” Explorers’ manager Clint Beane said. “We played them really well (last) Thursday night. Hopefully, we hit a little better.”

Midland responded at the ASA tournament with six consecutive wins through the losers’ bracket before finally falling to No. 8 Circle Tap. But as much success as they had facing elimination, Beane said it would be “a big lift” to get past Orillia in the second round.

“We played really well against those top teams,” Beane said. “We just haven’t broken through.”

Midland will have to find a way to beat top teams this weekend if it’s going to have success. Each of the 12 teams ranked ahead of them are in the 30- team field.

Beane added that the ISC’s prestige comes from the level of competition combined with the tournament’s atmosphere.

“The fan base is unreal as far as the ISC goes,” Beane said.

The Explorers had their worst finish since 1989 at last year’s ISC World Tournament, finishing 22nd, but Beane expects the team to respond to last year’s disappointing finish.

“The bounce back is to win that second game,” Beane said. “You’ve got to kind of stay in that winners’ bracket.”

Midland opens against unranked Napanee at 1 p.m. Saturday. The tournament continues through Aug. 18.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 8:38 pm and is filed under ISC, Teams, Tournaments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.