Titans' manager and head-coach Ian Jordan once again did a spectacular job organizing his annual end-of-season tournament. Formerly known as the Montreal Titans' Invitational, this tournament will now be called the TED WESTON MEMORIAL, in honor of this well-known figure in Montreal-area baseball. This year, the tournament took place on August 4th and 5th at Ballantyne Park in Dorval. Participating teams were the Montreal Titans, Jersey City PAL, the Ottawa Knights 19U and the Ottawa Knights 16U.
1st place - Joe Norton (Jersey City PAL) 15.12 seconds 2nd place - Marco Aumais (Montreal Titans) 15.14 seconds
Home-run Derby:
1st place: Wade Wilson (Ottawa Knights 19U)
GAME 3: Jersey City PAL 2 - Montreal Titans 5
In their first game of the Ted Weston Memorial Tournament, the Titans profited from a complete game by Anthony Carbone to get a 5-2 win against the Jersey City PAL team. The Titans held a 5-0 lead going into the final inning of the game when Anthony tired and allowed two runs before retiring the final New Jersey batter on a fly-ball to center.
Opportunistic hitting, combined with good base-running (4 stolen bases) and help from the wildness of the Jersey City starter, produced single runs in each of the first five innings. Michael Carbone had two of the Titans' four hits. Clean-up hitter Adam Gordon reached base in each at-bat (1 hit, 2BB, 1 HBP) and also plated a run. Guillaume Joannette-Girard and Emilio Pampena were each credited with RBI's.
GAME 4: Ottawa Knights 19U 5 - Montreal Titans 6 An exciting 7th-inning rally gave the Titans a 6-5 victory over the Ottawa Knights 19U team on Saturday evening. Having plated two runs in the 2nd inning, the Titans were riding on four innings of no-hit shut-out ball from Guillaume Joannette-Girard. However, control problems plagued the Titans' starter in the 5th; and at the inning's end, the Knights had scored five runs on six walks while only notching one hit, a single against reliever Marc-André Fleury. Marc-André went on to pitch scoreless 6th and 7th innings.
An error by the Ottawa centerfielder on a fly-ball hit by Adam Gordon opened the Titans' last at-bat. The Knights' pitching also began to experience some control problems and timely hitting by Emilio Pampena and Matthew DeLuca helped the Titans to tie the game. Michael Carbone's one-out sharp single then brought in John Cameron with the winning run.
GAME 5: Ottawa Knights 16U 1 - Montreal Titans 15
On the second morning of the tournament, the Titans finished their round-robin play with a relatively easy 15-1 victory over the Ottawa Knights 16U team. The game was essentially decided by their nine-run explosion in the second inning. The Titans' offense was balanced, as each starting player had at least one hit and one RBI. Steve Caron went three for four, with three singles, and Guillaume Joannette-Girard showed some power with a three-run home-run in the third inning.
The starter, Jared Goodman, allowed only one run on five hits over four innings and was credited with the win. He struck out four and did not walk a single batter. Nico Marinacci pitched a flawless 5th inning to close out this shortened game.
After this game, the Ottawa Knights 16U team was eliminated, finishing 4th in the tournament. The Montreal Titans finished in 1st place.
GAME 6: Ottawa Knights 19U 12 - Jersey city PAL 11 This game ended round-robin play in the tournament. At this point, the Ottawa Knights 19U were in second place and Jersey City PAL team was in third.
GAME 7: Jersey City PAL 9 - Ottawa Knights 19U 4 This was the semi-final game of the tournament. The Ottawa Knights 19U team finished in 3rd position, and Jersey City PAL advanced to play the Montreal Titans in the championship game.
The Ted Weston Memorial Tournament All-Star Team
Nine players were selected to the Ted Weston Memorial Tournament All-Star team:
From the Montreal Titans: Michael Carbone, John Cameron, Olivier Bertrand, Michael Sutton and Guillaume Joannette-Girard.
From the Ottawa Knights 19U: Wade Wilson and James Drolet
From Jersey City PAL: James Feminello and Anderson Minyetti
Special Dedication Ceremony
Prior to the final game, a special ceremony was held in honor of Ted Weston. Titans' manager Ian Jordan invited Doreen Weston. her two sons Kevin and Scott, and several close members of the family onto the field. Ian presented them with a commemorative plaque. He spoke warmly about his close friend and the ties between the Westons and the Titans' organization.
After a moment of silence in memory of Ted, Doreen threw out the ceremonial first pitch of the championship game.
GAME 8: Jersey City PAL 1 - Montreal Titans 11 This was the championship game of the tournament.
After winning the third game of the round-robin part of the tournament, and with a well-rested Michael Sutton on the mound, the titans were in good position to face Jersey City PAL in the championship game on Sunday evening. And Sutton's performance did not disappoint. After giving up a solid triple to the second New Jersey batter in the first inning, Sutton settled down and did not allow another hit for the remainder of the game. He was dominant, striking out nine hitters in six innings.
The Titans' offense got started in the 3rd inning. had a two-run single and Adam Gordon and Guillaume Joannette-Girard drove in a run with a sacrifice-fly. After scoring one run in each of the next two innings, the Titans finished off New Jersey with a six-run outburst in the 6th inning. The big hit was again delivered by Adam Gordon: a three-run, bases-clearing triple. In this game, each of the Titans' batters reached base at least once. Steve Caron once again had three singles. An 11-1 win was a fitting end to a great weekend!
The Montreal Titans - winners of the Ted Weston Memorial Tournament
THE THREE GRADUATES
Three-year veterans, Anthony Carbone, Michael Sutton and Emilio Pampena finish their careers with the Montreal Titans at the end of this season. The entire Titans' organization thanks them for their exemplary performance in its program and wishes them success in their future endeavors.
A SPECIAL THANK YOU A special thank you to Lynn Gordon
who organized the concession stand and to all of the parents of the
Titans' team who worked with her to keep everyone well-nourished during
the tournament. BRAVO! Your hard-work was greatly appreciated.
And we owe it all to our manager and head-coach, IAN JORDAN. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it!
2ND ANNUAL TED WESTON TOURNAMENT
The 2nd Annual
Ted Weston Tournament was hosted by the Montreal Titans over the
weekend of August
1st – 3rd at
BallantynePark in
Dorval, Quebec.This year
the tournament featured three
Ontario teams:the
Stratford Nationals, the Waterloo Tigers and the Brockville
Bunnies.
Friday, August
1st:
Game
#1:Brockville Bunnies 4
– Waterloo Tigers
1
Game
#2:Stratford Nationals 1
– Montreal Titans
3
Matt
Fallon
(7 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 4 BB, 5 K, 1 HB) started the Titans off in
strong style Friday evening with a complete seven-inning one-run game
which led
them to a 3–1 win against the Stratford
Nationals.
Stratford got its run in the top of the third
on a walk and
a stolen base followed by a double.The
Titans came back immediately, scoring two runs in the bottom of the
same
inning.First, Olivier
Bertrand’s sacrifice fly plated Marco Aumais (who
had
reached base on an infield error) to tie the
game.Then, Guillaume
Joannette-Girard’s two-out double scored
Thomas Rodrigues (who had singled and stolen second)
with the
go-ahead run.In the fourth inning,
Marc-André Fleury, who walked and
reached third with two outs, added an insurance run on an error by the
Stratford catcher.
The Titans only managed
four hits, but drew six walks and had runners on base in each
inning.Guillaume
Joannette-Girard (2/3, 2 2B, 1 RBI) led his team’s
offense.Fallon’s
pitching performance was especially impressive in this close game
because he
did not allow another hit after
Stratford scored in the third
inning.
Saturday, August
2nd:
Game
#3:Montreal Titans 5
– Waterloo Tigers
1
On Saturday, in their
second game of the tournament, the Titans obtained another excellent
pitching
performance from one of their starters.Left-hander Marc-André Fleury
(7 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 5 BB, 4 K) also threw a complete seven-inning
one-run
game and led his team to a 5-1 win over the Waterloo
Tigers.
The game was again close
until the late innings.The Titans
scored in the first on back to back doubles by Olivier
Bertrand and Guillaume
Joannette-Girard.They
then scored
another run in the second when Marco
Aumais’ double plated Antoine
Sabourin.Waterloo came back with a single run in the
third and the
game stayed tied at two to one until the Titans capitalized on some
porous
defense and scored three runs on only two singles in the
sixth.Marc-André
Fleury then only needed to face four batters in the seventh
to record three
outs and protect his victory.Marco Aumais (3/3, 1 R, 1 2B, 1 BB, 1 SB,
1 RBI), Guillaume Joannette-Girard
(1/3, 1 2B, 1 RBI), Antoine Sabourin
(1/2, 2 R, 1 SB, 1 HB, 1 RBI) and Olivier
Bertrand (1/4, 1 R, 1 2B) provided the Titans’
six-hit
offense.
Game 4:Brockville Bunnies 3
– Sratford Nationals
0
**Base-running
contest:Marco
Aumais
of the Montreal Titans came in first in the
base-running
contest.
**Home run
Derby:Matt Wing of the Brockville Bunnies won
the home run
contest.
Game
#5:Waterloo Tigers 8
– Stratford Nationals
1
Game #6 (Gold
medal):Brockville
Bunnies 7 – Montreal Titans
4
The gold medal game of the
tournament was played Saturday night: the Titans faced a familiar foe,
the
Brockville Bunnies.Doreen Weston
once
again threw the ceremonial first pitch of the championship
game.
After 3 ½ scoreless
innings, the Bunnies grouped two doubles, a single, a walk and an
infield error
in a two-out four-run rally to take the lead in the
game.The Titans got their first run
in the
fifth.With the bases loaded and one
out, Adam Gordon scored from third
on a passed ball.The other two
runners
(Guillaume Joannette-Girard and John
Cameron) were stranded when the
next two Titans’ hitters struck out.Brockville then scored three runs in the sixth
on two singles
coupled with some shaky Titans’
defense.Starter Tyler Durward (5 1/3
IP, 7 R, 4 ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 9 K) was replaced by Nico
Marinacci who recorded
Brockville’s last two
outs.In their at-bat in the top of the seventh, the Titans put
together
singles by Guillaume Joannette-Girard,
Marc-André Fleury and Thomas
Rodrigues, a double by Antoine Sabourin
and a wild pitch to
score three runs with only one out.But,
Brockville pitching, which recorded thirteen
K’s in seven
innings, struck out the last two Titans’ hitters to get the
7-4 win for the
Bunnies.
Although the Titans had
ten hits, received five walks and had runners on base in each inning,
they were
incapable of profiting from these opportunities to
score.Lack of opportunistic hitting
and four
infield errors could be blamed for this loss in the gold medal
game.Guillaume
Joannette-Girard (2/3, 1 R, 1 BB), Antoine
Sabourin (1/3, 1 2B, 1 SB, 1 HB, 1 RBI),
Marc-André Fleury (2/4, 1 R) and
Thomas Rodrigues (2/4, 2 SB, 1 RBI) accounted for
most of the
Titans’
offense.
The Montreal Titans won the silver medal in the
2nd Annual Ted Weston Memorial Tournament. They are seen here
with Doreen Weston.
Sunday, August
3rd:
Game #7 (Bronze
medal):Waterloo
Tigers 4 – Stratford Nationals
4
The bronze
medal game was shortened due to heavy rain. Since the score
was tied, the
score from the previous game counted for the bronze trophy.
Thus, the
Waterloo Tigers won bronze.
Congratulations to
Brockville for the team’s excellent
performance in the 2008
edition of the Ted Weston Tournament.The Titans’ organization thanks everyone who
helped make this tournament
a success.
On the second morning of the tournament, the Titans finished their round-robin play with a relatively easy 15-1 victory over the Ottawa Knights 16U team. The game was essentially decided by their nine-run explosion in the second inning. The Titans' offense was balanced, as each starting player had at least one hit and one RBI. 
Nine players were selected to the Ted Weston Memorial Tournament All-Star team:
Matt
Fallon
