WINNIPEG - Winnipeg Goldeyes manager Rick Forney announced today the signing of right-handed pitcher Ace Walker. . Walker, 28, is one of the most prolific starting pitchers in Goldeyes history and owns several of the teams pitching records. En route to his 10-win season last summer, Walker set the Goldeyes record for most career wins with 38 victories. He passed Rafael Gross on August 15, 2011 in a 15-2 complete game win over the St. Paul Saints for his 37th career win. "If you look over the past few years and the number of games hes won and the number of innings hes pitched, theres not too many guys in independent baseball that have accomplished that," Forney said. "Hes about as reliable as they come in terms of starting pitching in independent baseball. Hes going to take the ball every fifth day and pitch into the sixth or seventh inning. If a guy can be that consistent, your team is obviously going to have a chance to win." In 2011, which was his fourth season in a Goldeyes uniform, Walker went 10-4 in 21 starts with a 3.37 ERA. He became just the third pitcher in team history to post two 10-plus win seasons, joining Forney and Gross. Walker won 12 games in 2009 when he was the Northern Leagues Pitcher of the Year. A product of Sparks, Oklahoma, Walker also holds team career records for complete games (13), games started (84) and innings pitched (553) and single-season records for complete games (6 – 2009) and games started (22 – 2010). As for milestones Walker could reach in 2012, he needs 15 strikeouts to pass Forney for the Goldeyes career record and four shutouts to pass Jeff Bittiger. He will also become the first starting pitcher to play five seasons with the Goldeyes. "I consider ourselves lucky to have a guy like Ace for the number of years that weve had him. It doesnt happen very often," Forney said. "Ace is one of those guys that has a job away from baseball that allows him to go play baseball in the summer if he so choses to." Off the mound Walker is an accomplished artist and has painted numerous graphics behind home plate, including the Goldeyes Angry Fish logo the team released prior to last season. The Goldeyes now have seven players signed for the 2012 season, including two pitchers and five position players. [url=http://www.shopjerseyssaints.com/black-customized-elite-home-jersey-nike-nf... Customized Elite Youth Jersey . -- Defending champion Luke Donald faces Ernie Els in the first round of the Match Play Championship. . Mario Mandzukic all but killed off the tie in the 64th minute, heading in a rebound to leave Juventus needing to score four goals in 26 minutes. Claudio Pizarro added Bayerns second in stoppage time, while Arjen Robben hit the post for the German champions. [url=http://www.chinajerseyscheap.us/]http://www.chinajerseyscheap.us/ . Edgin was 0-1 with a 9.64 ERA in 11 appearances. New York manager Terry Collins says the team sent the left-hander to Binghamton rather than Triple-A Las Vegas so he can be recalled quickly if needed, and to keep him out of the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League as he tries to regain his confidence. cheap jerseys from china . The Predators announced Thursday that Rinne was set for arthroscopic surgery later in the day. Rinne had surgery on his left hip May 9 and recovered in time to start the season. Cheap NFL Jerseys Black Friday .S. Open womens doubles title. The fifth-seeded Czechs beat Australias Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday night.TORONTO – Incomplete hockey continues to burn the Leafs. "We just seem to hit a spot in the game where we just dont do anything right," Randy Carlyle said late Saturday evening, still trying to piece together the rollercoaster he had just witnessed. While they scratched back for an admirable point in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Jets at the Air Canada Centre, the Leafs winless skid extended to five amid an ongoing search for answers. Winnipeg scored four unanswered during a disastrous 15-minute slide in the middle frame, the Leafs racing back with three straight of their own to knot the score before falling in a lengthy shootout. However admirable their rallying efforts were, they do not erase the pockets of incomplete hockey which have lingered through a season-long skid. "Those stretches right now where were not playing good are kind of killing us in games," Carl Gunnarsson told TSN.ca afterward. He and the Leafs started well. Joffrey Lupul scored in his first shift back from injury for a quick 1-0 lead, but in the early stages of the second frame, signs of a storm begin to emerge. There were lost races and battles for the puck, an aversion to physical play, turnovers, a breezy neutral zone and little to no offensive pressure. They colluded in the Leafs yielding control of the lead and any previous momentum. "You can almost feel it coming sometimes," Cody Franson explained to TSN.ca of the puzzling stretches of inefficiency. "We get sloppy for a shift. Its like its just kind of contagious. The bench can feel it. We make a couple mental mistakes … and it snowballs on us for a minute. And then, we regroup and try and get back to what we were doing before." A rare goal from Nik Kulemin triggered the comeback late in that middle frame, a follow-up from Lupul 25 seconds later igniting a previously dormant home crowd. After James Reimer had replaced Ben Scrivens to start the third, Phil Kessel went on to erase the deficit completely. "The positives are we did a good job sticking with it," Franson said. Of the five losses in this current Leafs skid, four have really been one-goal battles – a loss to Winnipeg earlier this week the lone exception. In many cases, theyve been stung by odd dips in performance, a third period meltdown against the Penguins on Thursday another such example. Suitably pleased to snatch at least a point from a playoff rival – both clubs now have 32 points, the Jets sitting third in the East, the Leafs in sixth – Carlyle was still distressed by the mystifying lapses his team seems to endure. "Its a mindset thats got to change in our group," said Carlyle, who considered a goalie change or timeout, neither of which he opted to employ. "Youre not going to have success and youre not going to be able to even get points if youre going to have speed bumps like those within the game. "I think we just have to take responsibility for it, look ourselves in the mirror and say Hey this cant be happening to this hockey club. You can see one hand how poorly we played and then on the other hand when we played the third period we were skating, we were forechecking, we were playing our game. And its mystifying to everybody. Im sure they dont want to play like that, but it seems to grasp our group." Five Points 1. Lupuls return Back from a 25-game layoff, Lupul returned with a bang. The 29-year-old scored on his first shift of the game, taking a nifty feed from Nazem Kadri before firing a backhand past Ondrej Pavelec. "That was pretty much the dream first shift back," he said afterward. Lupul would go on to add his second of the game (and season) late in the middle frame after a Colton Orr forced turnover spurred another creative dish from Kadri. "He stands out," said Carlyle, noting Lupuls skating and obvious skill. "He separates himself from people." In what was his first action since January 23rd – he was sidelined with a fractured right forearm – Lupul played a touch under 17 minutes. "I felt great," he noted. "My legs were good, I felt good with the puck, arm felt strong, no complaints." 2. The shootout Lasting 10 rounds, the shootout and defeat ended when Zach Bogosian fired a puck off the right post, tucked in behind the left pad of Reimer. Tyler Bozak proved the sole Toronto shooter to beat Pavelec in the skills duel, three Leafs – Kadri, Matt Frattin and James van Riemsdyk – managing to hit the post. "Thats just the way its going right now," Carlyle sighed. For his initial three, Carlyle selected Kadri, Bozak, and Lupul before adding Kessel, Frattin, van Riemsdyk, Cody Franson, Clarke MacArthur, Dion Phaneuf and Nik Kulemin. Maybe most surprising was the absence of Mikhail Grabovski, who has scored inn three of his 12 career attempts. wholesale nfl jerseys. "You try to go with your best people from a pure skill standpoint," Carlyle said. "Youre always criticized because you didnt pick the right guy when you lose it." Reimer meanwhile, dropped to 3-6 in shootouts with a .677 save percentage (10 goals on 31 shots). 3. Strategy behind Lupul & Kessel split Aside from a handful of games after his initial arrival to Toronto, Lupul has been a constant alongside Kessel with the Leafs. But upon his return from a 25-game absence on Saturday evening, Lupul and Kessel were kept apart, the former paired with Kadri and Frattin. The need for balance and the emergence of van Riemsdyk helped explain Carlyles approach. "You go back to the summer when youre putting your potential lines together," he explained, "Im sure we didnt, I didnt anyways, bank on James van Riemsdyk playing up there, but we were forced to do it through injury and he leads our team in goals." "With the addition and the emergence of Kadri," he continued, "it allows Lupul to go in and play with Kadri and then you have another 1-A and 1-B type of scenario. And if we can continue to get [Mikhail] Grabovski to play the way he played the other night [versus Pittsburgh], then theres another element of offence that he can provide. We know that. So that gives us, in our minds, more of a balanced attack of the nine forwards that were going to play in those situations." 4. Reuniting Gunnarsson-Phaneuf The most prominent top pairing for the Leafs last season, Carlyle finally reconnected the duo of Phaneuf and Gunnarsson against the Jets, the first time he has joined the pair together this season. "We thought we would put the two defencemen that had played together historically against the best lines," said Carlyle, citing the Jets reliance on the top line of Blake Wheeler, Bryan Little and Andrew Ladd. "We thought that [John-Michael] Liles and [Korbinian] Holzer would be a combination that we could go with because we were adamant that we werent going to break up [Mark] Fraser and Franson." By shifting Gunnarsson onto the top pairing, Carlyle was able to remove Holzer, who has struggled, from the most pressure-packed of positions. And while the 25-year-old had his difficulties in 15-plus minutes on Saturday, he is more likely to find success moving forward in a role that doesnt force him to contend nightly with the likes of Crosby, Staal and Stamkos. Carlyle relied heavily on the aforementioned top pair, both Gunnarsson and Phaneuf logging in and around the 28-minutes. 5. Wiser for experience While he had a tough time opposite the Jets – pulled after two periods after yielding four goals on 27 shots – Ben Scrivens had been making steady improvement for the Leafs in goal this season – now with a 2.63 goals against average and .915 save percentage – a fact he ties to experience. "Its playing in Boston, its playing in Philly, playing against Pitt, playing against Washington, some superstars of the league," he told TSN.ca before the game. "You never know how youre going to stack up until youre in the deep-end and youre thrashing about trying to keep your head above water. Once you calm down, you can just tread water for a bit and you feel a little more comfortable where youre at." "Marty Brodeur doesnt look amazing because hes reading everything for the first time," Scrivens continued, "its because hes seen, Id say, thousands of 2-on-1s and hes picked up little idiosyncrasies players have, little tells they have, and he can make that determination off his past experiences about when to go over, when to play strong shot and so on and so forth." Quote of the Night "Its alright to come to the game and cheer." -Joffrey Lupul, on motioning to the crowd for action following his second goal. Quote of the Night II "We hit three posts in a shootout. Thats just the way its going right now." -Randy Carlyle, following the shootout defeat. Quote of the Night III "Those stretches right now where were not playing good are kind of killing us in games." -Carl Gunnarsson, on the incomplete pockets of hockey. Stat Watch 4-games: Point streak for Phil Kessel, who has amassed four goals and three assists in that span. 27: Points for Kessel and Kadri this season, tied for the team-lead in scoring. 3: Goals for Nik Kulemin this season. 62%: Collective faceoff percentage against the Jets, led by Mikhail Grabovski, who finished 10-15. 2-8-2: Leafs record when trailing after two periods. 6-6-2: Leafs record at home. 0-3-2: Leafs record in the past five games. Minute Watch 27:45: Carl Gunnarsson, a season-high. Up Next The Leafs have a rare three days off before facing the Lightning at home on Wednesday. ' ' '