Two of the greatest throwers in the history of Canadian men’s fastpitch will be in the circle this weekend as the Vancouver Grey Sox play host to the 2007 Vancouver Challenge at South Memorial Park.
Legends Darren Zack, a right hander out of Garden River, Ont., and Mike Piechnik, a left hander from Victoria, are both in their mid-40s now, but still remarkably effective at the elite level as their teams continue gearing up for next month’s International Softball Congress world tournament in Kitchener, Ont.
Zack will be pitching in Vancouver for the Horse Lake, Alta., Thunder, while Piechnik is on the staff of the Portland, Ore., Demarini.
The six-team Vancouver tournament will also feature the Broken Bow Gremlins of New York, currently ranked No. 1 in the ISC, the So Cal Bombers, who are No. 4, the Grey Sox and the Richmond Linus Software Stealers.
Broken Bow’s lineup includes two of the top international pitchers in the game: New Zealand national team ace Jeremy Manley and young Australian hurler, 6-6 lefty Andrew Kirkpatrick.
“We do feel we can compete with these teams,” said Grey Sox GM Conrad Margolis. “We split a three-game series — a win, a loss and and a tie — with So Cal earlier and we lost 1-0 to Broken Bow and Manley in a game that was scoreless into the seventh.”
Zack, who won ISC world titles with the Toronto Gators in 1993 and 1995, led Horse Lake to the annual all-native title in Prince George earlier this month, while Piechnik threw a perfect game against the Grey Sox last weekend in Portland as those two teams split a four-game series.
The opening game is tonight at 7 p.m. between Vancouver and Richmond. Start times for Saturday games run 8:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m., with playoff games Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 8 a.m., 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007