Dunkeld Senior Flyers All-Ontario 'C' champions 2006 Picture from Gwen (Woolacott) Garrard hold cursor over a face to see the name Dunkeld Flyers take title by Doug James The Port Hope Dunkeld Flyers are the Ontario Senior 'C' Champions. They won the Ontario Baseball Association Championship held in Orillia over the long weekend. The Flyers won their first three games, 4-3 over Tillsonburg, 4-2 over Clearview and 5-2 over Oakville. They lost 4-1 on Sunday morning to Clearview causing a three-way tie for first place overall. Port Hope won the draw into the championship game while Tillsonburg battled it out with Clearview and won. The Flyers defeated Tillsonburg 4-3 in the final game. "It was said after this contest that this was a game movies are made of!" stated Port Hope manager Bernie Alldred following game five. The team came through with a spectacular play to shut down Tillsonburg when they threatened to tie the game in the bottom of the final inning. A combination of clutch hitting and solid defence resulted in Port Hope winning the opening game of the series on Friday night 4-0 over Tillsonburg. Mike McNaught earned 'Player of the Game' honours by pitching the full seven innings, amassing an impressive seven strikeouts while only allowing one hit and walking one. The defense behind him did everything that was necessary to preserve the shutout. The offence went to work early. Sean Young scored in first inning on a single by Brett Jiggins. Bill Coradetti singled in Tom Langford in the third. Jiggins and Corey Baker hit back-to-back doubles in the fourth frame while Langford scored in fifth on a wild pitch. The team was up with the roosters on Saturday morning for a game against Clearview. Baker was on the mound and led his team to a 4-2 win by pitching a complete game, allowing six hits, striking out six along with no walks and allowing a stingy two earned runs. The Flyers had a big fifth stanza during which they scored all of their runs. Steve MacLachlan led off with a walk after two Flyers were out. Todd Van Leare took over on the base paths for MacLachlan and Brandon Duck brought him home. Duck scored on a Dowler hit. Dowler took advantage of a costly error by the Clearview first baseman to score. Back-to-back hits By Jiggins and Charles Hall resulted in Jiggins making it a four run Inning. A Clearview rally in bottom of seventh inning fell short. Port Hope had a long wait for game three, which was played on Saturday evening. The Flyers and Oakville were undefeated to this point in the tournament. Port Hope maintained an unblemished record with a 5-2 win. Fireball relief pitcher Todd Van Leare made his first start of the season. He allowed Oakville only two hits, struck out a pair and had no earned runs scored against him. Hall got busy in the fourth inning scoring a run and then drove in Jiggins who led off with double in the fifth. Oakville tied the game with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth only to watch the Flyers score three in the top of the seventh. Port Hope had two batters out and the bases loaded when clutch pinch hitter Langford hit a single that scored Wes Eriksson and Young followed by Paul Garrard driving in MacLachlan for the three run lead. Van Leare finished off Oakville in the home half of the seventh to preserve the win. The Flyers didn't follow the adage 'early to bed, early to rise' on Saturday night. They came out flat on Sunday morning for their second contest against Clearview and lost 4-1. Langford was the starter for Port Hope, pitched four innings and should have left the game trailing by a run but a costly throwing error with two out gave the Clearview a four run lead. Rob McNab pitched two scoreless in relief while the batters could only muster one run in the top of the sixth when Jiggins drove in Garrard who had opened the inning with a double. Sunday afternoon saw Port Hope joined by Clearview and Tillsonburg still in contention for the championship. The Flyers won the draw for the bye into the final game. In the semi-final match up Tillsonburg scored five runs in the top of the seventh to erase a 5-2 deficit and went on to win 7-5 over Clearview. The Flyers sent Veteran Scott Baron to the mound for the Championship game against Tillsonburg. After a good first inning. Baron had to leave the game with a recurring elbow injury. McNaught took over for his second tournament appearance. McNab drove in the first run for Port Hope, scoring Eriksson. Langford earned an RBI by bringing home Baker in the third. Tillsonburg scored once in the third and twice in the sixth. The Flyers earned a pair of markers in their half of the fifth when Young waited out a bases loaded walk to score Baker, and McNab hit a sacrifice fly to score Hall. The Flyers led by a singleton after six innings. The game was won in the bottom of the seventh inning. McNaught earned two quick outs with a strikeout and a pop-up. Tillsonburg got a pair of runners on base with back-to-back singles up the middle. Coach Alldred describes the action at this point of the game. "The play that will live forever. With the count two and two, Sox (Tillsonburg) catcher Lamb hits a hard two-hopper to third baseman Wes Eriksson with the ball bouncing off his chest, rolling out towards second base, hero Brad Dowler picked up the loose ball and hurled the horsehide home as the third base coach sent the Tillsonburg runner from second. Jiggins, the Flyers' catcher, caught the near perfect throw and dove towards the third base side of the plate, blocking the slide for the third out and glory was ours!!!!!!" That play was emblematic of the determination that the Flyers have displayed all season. McNaught was chosen player of the tournament. They drove back to the Dunkeld Restaurant in Port Hope to share their celebration with the management and staff. The team finished the season with fifteen wins an fifteen losses.