Cap Tip Shawn Williams, @ShawnPuggerWill
By Martin Cleary, OttawaSportsPages, @MartinCleary
For a three-week period beginning in mid August, Graham was picked up by two teams – the Horsholm Von Holmback Hurricanes of Denmark for the European Super Cup fastball tournament and the Bear Creek Express of Melbourne, ON., for the International Softball Congress world championships in Eldridge, Iowa, and the Softball Canada Rawlings Grand Slam tournament in Saskatoon.
Graham was a star player in the European competition in Prague, Czech Republic. In the final, he not only hit a first-inning, three-run home run, but also pitched a three-hit shutout as the Hurricanes defeated Chomutov Beavers of the host country 7-0 in the championship game.
In his five pitching assignments, Graham went 28 innings, posted four wins, struck out 63 of the 101 batters he faced and allowed 15 hits and six earned runs.
At the Grand Slam tournament in early September, Graham had a 1-1 win-loss record for the Express. He had one complete game and two relief appearances, striking out 13. Click here to read the complete story at Ottawa Sports Pages.ca
Editor’s Note: Thanks to live streaming of fastball games this summer, this young pitcher hit my radar. Watched him pitch (and homer) in the European Super Cup while playing for Denmark. Seemed like every tournament I followed, I’d see Joran in the winners’s circle — championship team, MVPitcher, or what have you. He had himself quite the season, as noted by Martin Cleary at the Ottawa Sports Pages. Fittingly, he finished up the year with the local boys, the Micksburg Twins, helping them win the GOFL League title. You can come home again. Well done, Joran.