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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1978-04-20, Page 10Page IQ Times-Advocate, April 20, 1978 Sports Spotlight By Ross Haugh Need changes We would like to make a suggestion to the fellow who makes up the American league baseball schedule. It would be a good idea to stall the home opener of the Toronto Blue Jays until at least the first week of May. While the Jays have been able to win both of their first games at home since they joined the American circuit last year neither has been very enjoyable for the spectators. Last year most of the game was played during a snowstorm which I saw far from ideal baseball con­ ditions. We had the opportunity to watch the Blue Jays in action for Friday’s opener and again Saturday. While the weather was almost bearable Friday, Saturday was a different story. A blustry wind off Lake Ontario along with temperatures near the zero mark kept the Saturday spectators as cool as the Blue Jays were. Snow actual­ ly fell during the early portions of the game. The only two players we were able to spot on either club who did not wear long sleeved sweaters un­ der their uniforms were the hottest players as far as performances were concerned. Veteran Tiger Rusty Staub has probably become accustomed to our frigid Canadian weather through a few years with the Montreal Expos. Staub had little trouble at the plate. He collected three base hits in ad­ dition to two long drives to centre field. The other short sleeved player Saturday was Jays • right fielder Roy Howell who connected for singles on his first two trips to the plate and temporarily raised his batting average to .480. The jury is still not decided on the outcome of manager Roy Hartsfield’s experiment to place Howell in right field and put Bob Bailor at third base. Both appeared a bit awkward at their new positions in the two contests we saw and newspaper reports of Sunday’s game indicate this situation con­ tinued. One of the newest Blue Jays is quickly becoming a real hit with the fans. He is centre fielder Rick Bosset- ti who made two sensational catches over the weekend in addition to showing plenty of promise at the plate. The Jays management could also be questioned on the move Saturday to take starting pitcher Tom Underwood out of the game after six innings with the score tied. ‘Pitching coach Bob Miller said he was concerned about Underwood’s back stiffening due to the extreme cold weather but trainer Ken Carson said he wasn’t aware of any problem. The main reason for the change was likely the fact that Underwood had already thrown 111 pitches, a few more than Bob Forsch tossed in his full nine inning no­ hit performance for the St. Louis Cardinals, Sunday. Underwood’s successor Mike Willis wasted little time in letting the Tigers go ahead as the first hitter Ron LeFlore homered. LeFlore is off to a flying start for the Tigers, es­ pecially in leading off against the Blue Jays. He hit the first pitch of Friday’s game over the deepest part of centre field at CNE Stadium. At the time of writing, the Tigers have lost only two games and both of these were to the Blue Jays. In both cases Jim Slaton was the Detroit losing pitches. The Tigers while not expected by most experts to have much chance in the American league east against the Yankees or Red Sox, we disagree. Manager Ralph Houk has a young hustling club augmented with seasoned performers like LeFlore, Staub, May and Rodriquez. If Mark “The Bird” Fidrych continues the way he has started and fellows like Jack Billingham and Dave Roesma come through Houk could have one of the best pitching corps in the league. Pleasant additions The Blue Jays have made a few changes at CNE Stadium to make the games a little more pleasant for the customers. A flashy scoreboard has been erected in right cen­ tre field. It can flash messages and display pictures, cartoons and replays. At the end of the top of the fifth inning, two pretty Blue Jay ball girls take to the diamond with miniature brooms. They sweep off the plate, the bases and oc­ casionally the shoes of the umpires. Come from behind twice The Exeter Hawks battled their way into the OHA final for the second consecutive year with two come from behind wins over St. George Lions on the weekend. They also had to overcome two one-game deficits to win the series in six games. Playing at home before over 1,200 fans on Friday, the defending junior “D” champs scored four unan­ swered goals in the third period to overcome a three- goal deficit with a thrilling 8- 7 victory. Meet Wingham or Lakefield Hawks reach Ontario final In Sunday’s final at St. George, they spotted their hosts a two-goal lead in the first and then came on strong in the final two periods to record a 4-2 win. St. George opened the scoring at the 7:11 mark, Sunday when Terry St. Almond was left all alone in the slot and had no difficulty banging a pass into the corner behind Scott McNair. Then two minutes later, with the teams each playing two men short, defenceman Dave Kinsman’s pass was GOOD VIEW — Hawks coach Ron Bogart gets up on the bench to get a better view of the action in St. George, Sun­ day. He liked what he saw as his team won the game and the series with a 4-2 triumph. T-A photo knocked down by Doug Fischer who had a clear path to the Exeter net and he made no mistake. The Hawks finally got untracked in the second, their first two goals coming on super individual efforts by Randy Parsons and Phil Knight. Parsons was sent down the left wing on a pass by Jim Ferguson near the midway mark, and a St. George defender appeared to have him well in tow, but the young winger stuck with the puck and strong-armed his way across in front of the net and slid the puck under Ken Kirby. Two minutes later, Knight took a hard check into the boards in his own end and that appeared to raise his ire and he took out his fury by stopping a shot at the Lions blueline and then drove around two defenders to drill a hard shot into the wide side for the game’s equalizer. The winner came with less than five minutes left in the second when Brian Taylor deflected a waist-high shot into the net on a pass from the corner. Ferguson and Matt Muller picked up the assists. The Lions protested the shot, saying it was knocked down with a high stick, but referee Frank Slota waved off their protestations. In the dressing room after the game, one of the taller Hawks looked at Taylor’s stature and jokingly asked, “how could it be a high stick?” The Exeter crew continued to dominate play throughout the final two periods, but it wasn’t until the 13:14 mark of the third that they picked up the clincher, it coming on a pin-point passing play between Fred Mommersteeg and Ken Pinder. Knight started the play with a pass to Pinder, who fed it up the wing to Mom­ mersteeg. The two then worked a perfect give-and-go as Mommersteeg dropped into the slot and rifled Pinder’s drop pass into the open corner from about 30 feet out. The Hawks picked up two penalties in the final six minutes to give the Lions a chance to get back in the contest, but some superb penalty-killing kept them at bay, as well as a couple of key saves by McNair. Goalies'nightmare Friday night’s game at the rec centre was a nightmare for goaltenders Kirby and McNair as they were left alone on several occasions to battle the opposition single­ handedly. The Hawks started off on the right foot as John Van Gerwen opened the scoring at the 3:28 mark on a good three-way passing play with Pinder and Van Gerwen. However, the Lions came roaring back to take a 3-1 lead by the mid-way mark as they took advantage of a porous Exeter defence. McNair made stops on all three plays, but the rebounds were fired home by players left unguarded in front of the net. Exeter came back to tie the game on a pair of goals by Jamie Caldwell, the first on d perfect pass from Brian Taylor from behind the St. George net and the second on a play with Brion Penhale and Ferguson. The Lions scored again late in the first on another rebound and Pinder evened the count early in the second when he successfully battled for the puck in the corner on a power play and skated out in front to hit the net. St. George scored twice after that to take a 6-4 lead into the third and they opened their three-goal margin at the 1:50 mark as Pete Misner completed a hat-trick. Then the Hawks started their come-back with the Taylor brothers being in­ strumental in the first two. Brian picked up Brad’s rebound and circled the net to tuck the disc into the open side for the first tally and then he fed a pass from beside the net to brother Brad in the slot for the second marker. The equalizer came at the 9:35 mark when Pinder won a face-off and then skated in front to knock in a rebound off a shot by Mommersteeg. Van Gerwen also picked up an assist. With just over two minutes remaining, Pinder sent Mommersteeg down the right side and the hard­ working winger was tripped as he moved in on the net, but still managed to get his stick out to slide the puck into the net on the delayed penalty call. SERIES NOTES — McNair, who stopped two breakaways on Friday, kept the Hawks in with two big saves in the final period, one on a breakaway and another on a point blank shot following a two-oii-one break ... he allowed the Lions only two goals in the third periods of the four games he worked . . . captain Steve Jennison, who missed the first game of the series with a knee injury, was sidelined Friday night when he stopped a shot on the ankle. He was on crut­ ches Sunday and may be a doubtful starter for the next series . . . defenceman Randy Fisher had a tooth badly chipped in Sunday’s game when he was decked by a high stick late in the third . . . Exeter fans again outnumbered those from St. George in Sunday’s game . . . Fred Mommersteeg, an annual nominee for the most gentlemanly member of the Hawks, was the hardest hitter in the contest when he caught two Lions with stiff checks .. . Brion Penhale and Fisher also took the steam out of a pair of Lions with flattening blows ... Randy Parsons won the only fight of the game, scoring a TKO when his opponent decided he’d had enough and turned his back on the fray. COMPLETE LINE OF BICYCLES By famous brands as Raleigh, C.C.M., or Windsor. Plus parts and accessories. At Rollie's we offer you service by trained and experienced technicians. We offer all our customers a FREE service inspec­ tion on every new bike sold after a "break in" period. AN ALL NEW LINE C.C.M. FOR '78 SEE THE EXCITING NEW LINE OF C.C.M. BICYCLES FROM JUNIOR TO 10 SPEED AND DON'T FORGET OUR SERVICE. EVERYTHING FOR FISHING GOOD BUYS ON ALL POLES AND REELS PLUS A COMPLETE LINE ACCESSORIES FOR THE FISHERMAN RE°?sANDst50%ofF ATOM MVP — Jeff Pfaff won th& Exeter atom most valuable player award this year and is shown receiving his trophy from Dave Bogart at Wednesday's team banquet. The trophy is sponsored by Ron Bogart, T-A photo Sassenachs win in darts The Sassenachs,have won the regular season cham­ pionship of the Exeter Legion mixed dart league for the third consecutive year. League play ended Friday night and the Sassenachs accumulated 103 points, three more than the runner up Winkers. Playoffs start Friday night with all 16 teams competing for the grand championship, Keith Brittain proved to be the top performer in the men’s division during the year. He threw a perfect 180 game for the high score and was tied with Wayne Par­ sons with the most games won at 40. Doris Dobson with a one game score of 143 was best for the ladies and Barb Hearn chalked up 38 vic­ tories. Friday’s playoff schedule is as follows: 8 p.m. Dr’s vs First Chance Family Affair vs Scotties Shiphunters vs McPfaffs Doublers vs Flying Highs 9.30p.m. Sassenachs vs Winkers • Itchy Niters vs Outlaws Out of Space vs Nicky Tams Sabres vs ? PLAN BALL MEETING An organizational meeting for minor ball in Exeter will be held Tuesday, April 24 at 7:00 p.m. at the South Huron Rec Centre. Any adult that is willing to coach or assist in any way, or those people generally in­ terested in boys or girls soft- ball are asked to attend. Dual and Single Control Models IN STOCK Get Our Price Before You Buy » ait •’* Jerry Maclean fit Son • GJ t # 0^/00 LEFT ALONE — Terry St. Almond was left unguarded in the slot and the puck is on its way into the goal for the Lions first tally in Sunday s game. Three Exeter players were caught behind the net on the play. T-A photo ^lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIllIllllllllllllllllIlllllllllllllllllllllllIlliliiiillIillllIllliliiiiiililiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuii^ | We buy 'em by the truck load...to | I bring you better values1. 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