{"id":3486,"date":"2009-07-20T23:13:31","date_gmt":"2009-07-21T06:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=3486"},"modified":"2009-07-20T23:13:31","modified_gmt":"2009-07-21T06:13:31","slug":"record-not-indicative-of-how-pei-played-at-u-19-softball-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=3486","title":{"rendered":"Record not indicative of how P.E.I. played at U-19 softball tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

From The Guardian<\/strong>:<\/a>
\nBy CHARLES REID <\/em><\/p>\n

P.E.I.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1-7 record at the recent under-19 international men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s softball championship in?Charlottetown isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a great accomplishment, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the job of Jeff Ellsworth, Team P.E.I. co-coach, to look closer.<\/p>\n

Those seven defeats included two one-run losses and two two-run losses. That from a team with no league to play in, which forced it to scrimmage with the Charlottetown Fawcetts senior men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s team and a hodge-podge squad of former fastpitch devotees before the under-19 tourney.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sometimes the score does not always reflect how well the game went for a specific team. We came into the event with a goal to give ourselves a chance to win each game and for the most part we did that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Ellsworth in an email interview. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We played in a lot of close ball games that were won late in the game or extra innings were needed. We put the bat on the ball and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make too many errors and we got the pitching from all our starters.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Ellsworth, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in Saskatoon, Sask., this week with Team Canada for the International Softball Federation world men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fastpitch championship, shared P.E.I.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bench duties with Darcy Harris.
\nP.E.I. started the under-19 tourney with a 9-3 loss to the Northwest Territories but stuck it out and remained competitive before losing 1-0 to Alberta in the relegation tournament.
\nSo how does Ellsworth compare the province\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s softball program to the rest of Canada?<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are a little weak in the numbers department, but rank up there in the skill department. With a few breaks this past week we were right there. We have many talented ball players on P.E.I., but not all play softball, which is fine. We just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have thousands of players to choose from when selecting a team, but I have to say sometimes that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good thing because the players that we selected all came for the right reasons and had the heart to play,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n

His current job, a fourth-year outfielder with the national squad, has him suiting up for one of 16 countries in Saskatoon. Canada is 3-0 midway through its seven-game round-robin schedule. Playoffs start Friday. The worlds operate on a four-year rotation like the Olympics. New Zealand is the three-time defending world champ. Canada last won in 1992.<\/p>\n

Ellsworth hopes to be asked to coach P.E.I. for the next under-19 international event (it replaced the Canada Games men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s softball dropped for 2009), but will be onboard for the eastern Canadian championship next month in Quebec.<\/p>\n

The Tignish native said his team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will to compete proved a strength and with more games and time improvement is inevitable.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153These kids all know the game and can play well, but to succeed at this level you need to play all the time and for what we did leading up to the event, we exceeded our team and personal goals,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Overall, the boys played really well.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

creid@theguardian.pe.ca.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From The Guardian: By CHARLES REID P.E.I.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1-7 record at the recent under-19 international men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s softball championship in?Charlottetown isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a great accomplishment, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the job of Jeff Ellsworth, Team P.E.I. co-coach, to look closer. Those seven defeats included two one-run losses and two two-run losses. That from a team with no league to play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,19,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}