Friday, January 27, 2006 Article as posted in The Prince George Citizen Black Bears beef up by TED CLARKE, Citizen staff
It appears the Prince George Black Bears have added some teeth and a few claws to their fastball den. The hosts of the 2006 Canadian senior men's fastpitch championship have secured the services national team pitcher Korrey Gareau for the tournament, Aug. 27-Sept. 3 at Spruce City Stadium. Gareau, the top pitcher at the International Softball Congress world championship in 2005 and a three-time first-team all-star in the ISC world event, was announced Thursday as part of the Black Bears team. Gareau, who lives in Victoria, says he's looking forward to the tournament. He knows what kind of support to expect for the home team, having played for the Prince George Blazers at the 1995 Canadian junior national championship in Prince George. "I played for P.G. juniors in '95 in P.G. when they hosted nationals and it was a blast," said Gareau, in a media release. "I truly enjoyed the fan support we got that year and I am speculating it will be even bigger this year as some of the local talent have become great ball players and have proven they can beat anyone. "I have been on the oppposite side of the fan support (in Prince George) and it is an experience some teams might not be able to overcome." Gareau will join a pitching staff that includes former Prince George resident Collin McKenzie, Gareau's friend since childhood in Victoria, and Ryan Brand of Calgary. Gareau and Brand's signings were among several the Black Bears announced at Thursday's news conference. Evan Potskin, 31, a former Team Canada outfielder, initially said he would play for the Vancouver Gray Sox in the senior tournament, claiming at the time the Vancouver team had a better shot at winning the national title. But the signing of Gareau has led to a change of heart. "I had a chance to play with Korrey Gareau in 2002 with Victoria and he's one of the best pitchers in the world," Potskin said. "With him, and Collin McKenzie and Brand, we have a really good chance of winning. We have a really good hitting team, too. "Definitely, we have a chance to win the whole thing now, with Gareau pitching. Hopefully I can hit the ball like I'm known to, and play good defensively, and we can score some runs." The Black Bears have signed Darryl Sandback of Clearwater, a member of the 2005 ISC world champion County Materials team of Wisconsin, whom McKenzie called "one of the toughest outs he's ever faced." They also added Harvey Stevenson of Victoria, another former national team member, who provides the team some depth at catcher, and he'll likely back up homebrew Chad Ghostkeeper. Ghostkeeper was the all-star catcher at last year's senior championship in St. Thomas, Ont., where his hot bat helped the Black Bears to a seventh-place finish. Rick Rozychuk of Calgary also joins the fold as a position player. Rozychyuk played for the Calgary team at the 2005 world championship. "Our goal is to playing (in the championship game) on Sunday," said Black Bears general manager Jeff Hill. "With the players we've just recruited, we've given ourselves a good shot at being there." Black Bears head coach Nino Fabbro admits he can't wait to see his team at full strength on the field. Although the team will play about 50 games to prepare for the senior tournament, most of the out-of-town talent won't be available to the Black Bears until the week of the tournament. "I'm pretty excited about it," Fabbro said. "It kind of reminds me of the Prince George Lumbermen team we had in '77, when Victoria Payless was the only team that could beat us. With Evan coming, and the pitchers that we've got, it adds so much to the depth of the team. We filled the spots in the lineup we needed to get filled." Dave Koch and Len Potskin will serve as Fabbro's assistant coaches http://www.canadians2006.net/NewsDesk.html Als Fastball List *Email: fastball(at)pmihrm.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.AlsFastball.com/ NEWS: http://fastpitchwest.com/alsfastball eScribe is down, but may be back soon escribe.com _______________________________________________ Alsfastball mailing list Alsfastball@fastpitchwest.com http://fastpitchwest.com/mailman/listinfo/alsfastball_fastpitchwest.com
