Through the first five games of the provincial AAA championships, The Langley Blaze Prep (15 and under) team had yet to trail in a single contest.
And it wasn’t even close.
The team was obliterating both the ball and the competition, scoring 70 runs in winning their first five games by a combined margin of 60 runs over the weekend in Kamloops. Only once in those five games did Langley fail to win by more than seven runs as they won 20-1 over the Victoria Mariners, 11-1 against the Whalley Chiefs, 12-0 over the Kamloops Junior River Dogs, and 14-7 over the White Rock Tritons.
The semifinals saw them crush the North Shore Twins 13-1.
But here they were, in Sunday’s provincial championship final back up against the Tritons, trailing 2-0 after the first two innings. Both White Rock runs — one apiece in each inning — were unearned after the Blaze committed costly errors.
“I basically told them to just stick to the things we had been teaching all season long— trust the approach, trust what we have been doing all year”, said Blaze coach Russell Kennedy when recalling what he told the players in the dugout. “We have scored a ton of runs, we have a bunch of runs left in us.”
The Blaze got on the board with one run in the bottom of the fifth inning and then tied things at two in the sixth.
“We scratched and clawed a couple of runs,” Kennedy said.
The tying run was on a bases loaded walk. And then with two runners on and one out in the bottom of the seventh and final inning, Nick Holdershaw slapped an RBI single, scoring Ryan Bietel from second base for the winning run in a 3-2 win.
Josh Mirecki pitched six solid innings, allowing no earned runs, to earn the game MVP award.
He was relieved by Carson Chorpita in the top of the seventh inning with Chorpita picking up the win for his one inning of work.
“I use the word surreal because I don’t think anyone would have thought we would be able to do what we did, especially in the fashion we did it,” Kennedy said.
This is the first year the Blaze have run a prep program and the 15 players have been practising since September.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the kids. To peak at the right time is a testament the kids and the dedication that they had to what we were teaching them and implementing that.”
“I thought we had a lot of talent and a lot of kids who were willing to work really hard,” Kennedy said.
“But to be honest, at the beginning of the year, we thought we might have a chance, but to win the way we did was just unbelievable.”
The team will now prepare to represent B.C. at the Canadian prep national championships which run Aug. 25 to 29 in Summerside, PEI.
To follow the team at nationals, click here.
