Dan Boyd | Contribued
The Sooke Loggers and Newfoundland Galway-Hitmen were involved in two bench-clearing incidents at the Canadian National Senior Men’s Fastpitch Softball championship in St. Croix, N.S. on Saturday.
Sooke lost the game 7-0, but the rough stuff was provoked by Newfoundland initially
It transpired early in the first inning when Newfoundland runner Mathieu Roy took great exception to Loggers’ catcher Kyle Cowick positioning at the plate to tag him out.
As the ball slid from Cowick’s glove following the slide, the Newfoundland bench emptied and punches were thrown.
Former Newfoundland premier Danny Williams, the owner of the Galway Hitmen, was on the field during the first altercation, something, which BC Manager John Bishop said, “he had no business doing because he was not a coach or manager and was not in uniform.
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“I will be looking into that and see if Softball Canada officials had taken note of it.”
In the first round of ejections, Roy and another Newfoundland player were ejected while Cowick was the lone BC player tossed. This all came in the first inning.
Then in the third inning, Stephen Lieph of the Loggers threw an inside pitch to Newfoundland catcher Ryan Boland who took immense objection and traveled to the mound with bat in hand but the players were quickly separated.
Surprisingly enough, Lieph was the only player ejected this time.
This second confrontation despite the benches clearing did not result in any punches being thrown.
“It was a game that had everything but I couldn’t understand why Lieph was ejected and Boland allowed to stay as a result of the second altercation,” Bishop said.
“Lieph was throwing an inside pitch but certainly not attempting to injure anyone whatsoever.”
Softball Canada Officials were behind closed doors after midnight Atlantic time and threw most of the night to determine whether supplemental discipline would be required prior to the Loggers-Elmira Game.
If the Loggers win, they advance to the national championship game against the Galway-Hitmen today.
In earlier action Saturday, the Loggers blanked host East Hants 2-0 while allowing the Mastadons a single hit as Lieph dominated striking out 14.