Penticton SOMBA Tigers came up a couple of runs short of a provincial championship but the AA 15U squad still finished with a season to celebrate.
The club wound up with a record of 45 wins and just six losses in league and tournament play.
Penticton lost the championship game of the B.C. Baseball Association tournament 9-6 to Vancouver Minor Expos earlier this month in Richmond.
“The team worked hard all season long and each player improved dramatically,” said head coach Iain MacIntyre. “The coaching staff couldn’t be any prouder of the boys, their work ethic, commitment to learn, teamwork and how much fun they had playing the great game of baseball.”
And for two of the Tigers, the baseball season is not quite over yet.
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Based on their performance at the championships, the Expos, who will travel to San Diego later this month, have asked Penticton players Ben Avila and Marlo Spence to join them at the Summer Sizzle tournament in California.
Penticton opened the B.C.’s with a round-robin loss to the Expos but rallied to win their next four including a 12-1 win over Kamloops in which Avila and Zack Reigler turned in “amazing” performances on the mound and Spence proved to be a “rock” behind the plate according to the coach.
In the 4-2 win over Carnarvon of Vancouver Island, Khy Cutler pitched five strong innings and Spence came in to close out the game.
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A straight-away homer to centre field helped Nash Bilenki earn that game’s MVP honours.
From there they went on to meet the North Island Royals in the semi-finals, a team that had gone undefeated in the other pool.
MacIntyre said the match was a “tough back and forth” affair but in the end, it was the Tigers prevailing by a 10-8 margin to earn a berth in the championships.
In addition to a silver medal in the provincials (out of 21 teams) the squad won a gold at the prestigious Tsawwassen invitational tournament and a bronze in the Valley of Champions event in Kelowna.
The rest of the club will hang up the cleats for the season and will be back at it again in November when the winter season begins.
To report a typo, email: editor@pentictonwesternnews.com.
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Mark Brett | Reporter
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