Fastball Season starts Monday night

by DAVE NOPPE

Staff Writer - The Daily Observer, Friday May 7, 2004

    The Upper Ottawa Valley Men's Fastball League is set to throw out the first pitch on Monday night.

    This year the league will welcome back the CFB Petawawa Stags.

    Clouthier's Rebels (Pembroke) will not be fielding a team.

    "Petawawa is back after being out last year but our team (the Rebels) won't be in this year.  We just didn't have enough bodies to make up a team,"  UOVMFL president Barclay Bramburger said.

     He himself has retired from playing this year and will be enjoying the action from the bleachers.

     The schedule includes two to four games per week with the playoffs expected to start in early to mid September.

     "It really depends on the number of rainouts we have this year.  This is a little early start to the season for us but we always find that at the end of the season we're pushing to get games in so we decided to start the season a week earlier," he said .

     The league includes Beachburg NRTCO, the Campbell's Bay Royals, Shawville Hursty's Bar, the Micksburg Twins, the CFB Petawawa Stags and affiliate team Fitzroy Harbour WC Electric.

     "We want people to remember that softball is the name, but fastball is the game.  People should come out and see the games, it's great action and we have some very good fastball players in this area,"  Bramburger said.

     The Ontario Intermediate Fastball Association agrees with Bramburger and has ranked the Micksburg Twins fifth in it preseason evaluation.

     "For a team from Micksburg to get that kind of ranking says a lot about how good the competition around here can be,"  Bramburger said.

     The 13-game schedule gets underway Monday night with Campbell's Bay meeting the Stags at CFB Petawawa.  Game time is 8 p.m.