Winnipeg team wins annual RR Labour Day tourney

By Ken Johnston
Editor

A year later and the arm of Brady Woods has not lost any zip. The Plum Coulee Farmers’ pitcher dazzled the crowd of about 100 Sunday for the second year in a row at the annual Rainy River Royals Fastball Tournament when his Winnipeg team met Fort Frances’ Sight and Sound in the finals.
It was three up three down for Fort against Woods in the first three innings. Of those he struck out four.
The Farmers also faced a tough pitching staff from Fort Frances with Bob Andy taking the mound for the first four innings. He put the first two Farmers out and then allowed Trevor Oltsher to hit a single. But he was stranded as the next batter, Woods, was thrown out at first on a ground ball.
In the bottom of the second Farmers’ first baseman Don Gall started things out with a single. A sacrifice bunt by Leeland Indian advanced Gall to scoring position on second. Jesse Tom then brought Gall in with a single. He was later stranded on second. But the Farmers were up 1-0 after two.
In the bottom of the third the Farmers tried to get things going again but saw two men left on base.
Fort Frances lead of batter, John Desaulniers, struck out, but Marcel Pagee followed him with a walk and then stole two bases. But Duane Carlson was thrown out at first and then Grant Swire was struck out.
Bottom of the fourth saw the Farmers break things open. Indian hit a single. Then the red hot Jesse Tom hit a triple to score Indian. He was brought home by Travis Derkson who hit a triple and was then brought home by Justin Wagner. Wagner was then stranded on third when Andy struck out both Kyle Langlais and Oltsher. The Farmers were now up 4-0.
Woods was tough again in the top of the fifth. He faced four batters and left one of them on first.
Woods then hit a double in the bottom of the inning off relief pitcher John Desaulniers. Gall hit a pop foul to mark the first out. Indian hit a single to set things up for Tom again. He whapped a triple to deep center field and earned two more RBIs. Rolly Compte and Derkson then struck out to end the inning with the Farmers up 6-0.
Woods faced four more batters in the sixth and shut them out again.
Kyle Langlais reached with a single after two Farmers were thrown out at first. Woods then hit a double to score Langlais. He and Gall were stranded when Indian was thrown out at first to end it 7-0.
Fort’s last at bat saw Brady turn on the rocket boosters and fire strikes so fast all the batters could do was listen to the swish their bats made. Three of them, Carlson, Swire and Derek McKinnon faced him and all were struck out. The final score was 7-0 and the Farmers won $800 for first and Fort $400 for second.