Hofstetters Again Lead York to Victory

Wearing their detested grey uniforms, the York Diamonds ran their modest winning streak to two games with a sloppy 15-9 victory over the Mississauga A's last Sunday before a large crowd of family members at Mississauga Valleys Park.
York scored 11 runs in the top of the first on 7 walks and 4 hits with the two biggest blows being a Jeff Hofstetter grand slam and then if it wasn't enough, Hofstetter came up again later in the inning and blasted a three-run homer. It is said that the Diamonds will be kidnapping Jeff's girlfriend to make sure that she attends all games in the future. Hofstetter almost improved on his already incredible day by flying out twice more to deep centre later in the game. Fellow Guelph native and brother, Rob Hofstetter enjoyed the run support and pitched 6 innings to earn his first win of the year. Some shoddy defense meant that 7 of the A's 9 runs were unearned. Tyler Sloan pitched the final 3 innings for his first save of the campaign. Don Cantwell blasted a solo homer down the right field line to wow his wife Michelle and daughters Hailey and Taylor who were in attendance.

In all Jeff Hofstetter, Brent Sterling, and Cantwell had 3 hits and Rudy Naraine doubled and tripled to lead the York offense.

For the A's, Todd Campbell pitched 8 strong innings in relief and also had 3 hits. The game ended on weird play where an A's groundball got through the infield and left fielder Paul Freeman made a brutal 26 hop throw to the plate which was not in time, catcher Jeff Hofstetter then fired to third, wide and off the glove of Greg Shannon...the ball then caromed back to Freeman in shallow left field who then proceeded to chase after and tag out the A's baserunner to conclude the festivities. Freeman found it somewhat ironic that on perhaps the ugliest throw of his life that he would be credited with perhaps his lone assist of the season.

Freeman finally returned to the glare of the media spotlight and had these comments after the game "The bats started to conme around tonight and Jeff had an inning for the ages. Rob threw great but the D let him down again. It seems like whenever he pitches we have one bad inning every game, and we've got to improve our defensive focus and stop giving up big innings or we will be at home knitting sweaters for our grandmothers in September instead of playing for a championship. Speaking of grandmothers, that throw I made in the last inning looked like a 92 year old who just woke up from a Siesta in her rocking chair. Anyways next Thursday's game should be a fun night as the Keelesdale infields, warning track, plates, mounds, and bullpen mounds have all been redone under the watchful eye of Pete Zakkak...I am looking forward to seeing the changes."

Date: June 14, 2004     Time: 1:00pm      Venue: Three Valleys