Bears maul RR Legion in tourney

Ken Johnston
Editor

It started as a pitcher’s dual but ended up a slug fest as the Pinewood Bears defeated Rainy River in the “A” side finals in the Rainy River Legion Royals Fastball tournament Sunday.
Two of the best pitchers to play the game in the Rainy River District took to the mound. Murray Armstrong of Rainy River held Pinewood at bay the first two innings allowing only 4 hits and striking out two, allowing only one run to be scored by Clint Armstrong.
John Desaulniers of Pinewood also pitched the first two innings tough allowing only one hit; a homerun by Don Gall. It was tied 1-1 after the second, but the third would see that change.
Rainy River was shutdown by Desaulniers, three up, three down.
Pinewood started things off with an out by Justin Wagner, but then exploded scoring six runs. Clint Armstrong hit a solo homer, Desaulniers and Pierce Jackson each hit doubles, Kyle Langlais and Earl Ivall hit singles and to the Royal’s surprise Joel Ashworth popped a double over the shallow outfielding. Ashworth, Armstrong, Jackson and Langlais all picked up R.B.I.’s. Armstrong’s homer bounced off the top of the outfield fence.
In the fourth Rainy was shut down with a runner stranded on second and Pinewood was held scoreless with two left on base.
The fifth saw both Armstrong and Desaulniers pitch with awesome velocity. Rainy’s Ken Gess hit a single, but the next three batters were struck out. Armstrong also took down the next three Bears he faced, two of which were strike outs.
In the sixth Rainy again could not get their bats to beat Desaulniers. Guy Arpin was stranded at third.
Then in the bottom of the inning the Bears bats connected again to bring in five more runs and win the game via the ten run rule. Tom Armstrong cranked the game winning homerun that scored three. Desaulniers, Langlais, Jackson and Bruce Hanson all picked up singles. Jackson earned an R.B.I.
Pinewood won 12-1.
In the “B” event the game was all Sight and Sound’s (Fort Frances) with the exception of the top of the 5th Inning.
Big Grassy Braves were held scoreless until the 5th inning while Sight and Sound scored two in the first and three in the second to lead 5-0. The scored stayed that until the top of the fifth when Big Grassy staged a rally to tie the game at 5-5.
Not to be outdone Sight and Sound turned up the heat and scored ten runs without getting put out once. That saw the game end with the ten run rule and a score of 15-5.