Portland Wins Bear Classic at Prince George, BC

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Received: 7/11/06 11:39:15 AM 
From:  "Jim Flanagan" <jim(at)fastpitchwest.com> 

  
Subject:  Portland Wins Bear Classic at Prince George, BC  
   

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CR/Portland captured the Bear Classic, knocking off the Vancouver
Grey Sox in the semi-final and host Prince George in the championsip
game, with Mike Piechnik picking up the wins in both contests.
 Brian Ree's five home runs led the offense for Portland.


Below, is a copy of the Tournament Recap story that ran in the
local Prince George newspaper, the Citizen Staff, Prince George,
British Columbia:

Best regards,
Jim Flanagan
jim (at) fastpitchwest.com

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Black Bears make strides, lose to Portland in final at Bear Classic

by JASON PETERS, Citizen staff - Prince George, BC
After having both legs cut out from beneath him, Prince George
Black Bears pitcher Heinie Shannon couldn't make it to the rubber
for the bottom of the sixth inning. CR/Portland took full advantage
of his absence.

Sunday afternoon at Spruce City Stadium, CR/Portland beat the
Black Bears 9-5 in the title game of the Bear Country Classic
men's fastball tournament. The Black Bears entered the bottom
of the sixth with a 5-3 lead. But, with the injured Shannon watching
from the dugout, they surrendered six runs, all by way of the
long ball.

First, Marc Santillano ripped a two-run home run to left centre
to tie the game 5-5. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded,
Brian Ree sent a moon shot over the fence in centre field. Both
bombs came off Black Bears reliever Norm Linton.  <strong>Ree
hit 5 homeruns during the two day tournament for Portland.</strong>

"I hated to put him in," Black Bears manager Nino Fabbro said
of being forced to insert Linton into the game at such a late
stage. "The kid has so much talent that you want to expose it
as much as possible. He's not going to be successful all the
time against hitters like they've got."

For Ree, meanwhile, hitting the grand slam could not have been
a sweeter moment. In a Saturday 7-5 loss to Prince George — with
Linton throwing — Ree hit into a game-ending double play when
his team had the bases loaded.

"I got a second opportunity and I wanted to make the most of
it," Ree said. "I put my head down as soon as I hit it because
I knew it was gone."

Ree also hit a leadoff home run in the first inning of Sunday's
final, a blast that got Portland on the board after Prince George
scored three times in the top of the first.

Shannon, picked up by the Black Bears for the tournament, was
cruising along until the bottom of the third inning when he took
a line drive from Brian Kaneshige off his left shin. The next
batter, Kevin Rasmussen, promptly ripped a two-run homer to tie
the score 3-3.

Shannon's rough times continued in the top of the fourth. While
batting against Portland chucker Roberto Balher, Shannon was
sent to the dirt by a high and tight pitch. He was uninjured,
but the same could not be said after an at-bat against Mike Piechnik
in the sixth. This time, a foul tip caught Shannon just above
the right foot. After fanning on the next pitch, he was done
for the day.

Prince George had taken a 5-3 lead in the top of the fifth inning.
Kim Dirks scored the go-ahead run after a Portland fielding error
and then Brian Bailey produced an RBI single that scored Doug
Cain. For Portland, Mark Bennett started the game on the rubber
but didn't make it out of the second inning. The three Black
Bears runs in the first came on four hits.

In the semifinal round, the top-seeded Black Bears escaped with
a 5-4 win against the fourth-seeded Grande Prairie Pride. The
Bears trailed 4-1 in the top of the sixth inning but got a three-run
triple from Eddie Dent to tie the game. Dent then crossed home
plate with the winning run after a Darrell Gervais chopper was
mishandled by Pride shortstop Mike Mohr.

In the other semi, Portland edged the Vancouver Grey Sox 2-1.
 WP  Piechnik  LP  Underhill    HR Kaneshige (Portland) Newitt
(Vancouver)

In Saturday round-robin games, the Black Bears went unbeaten
to claim first place. Prince George beat Grande Prairie 11-2
and then used two-run final innings to defeat Portland 7-5 and
Vancouver 7-6. Dating back to last season, the win against Vancouver
came after 16 consecutive losses to the Grey Sox.

"We've become a better team," Fabbro said of his club's weekend
performance. "We definitely reached a couple goals that we had.
One of course was beating Vancouver."

The Black Bears, who will host the Canadian men's fastpitch championship
Aug. 27 to Sept. 3, see their next tournament action July 28-30
in Vancouver.

Weekend results from the Bear Country Classic men's tournament,
held Saturday and Sunday at Spruce City Stadium.

Round-robin

P.G.. 11 Gr. Prairie 2

Vancouver 3 Portland 2

Vancouver 8 Gr. Prairie 2

P.G. 7 Portland 5

P.G. 7 Vancouver 6

Portland 8 Gr. Prairie 2

Playoffs

Semifinals

P.G. 5 Gr. Prairie 4

Portland 2 Vancouver 1
 
WP  Piechnik
LP    Underhill

Final

Portland 9 P.G. 5
 
WP  Piechnik
LP   Linton
 
HR  Ree 2 (Portland)  Santillano (Portland) 
 
>

From:  "Jim Flanagan" <jim(at)fastpitchwest.com> 


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