Heading into this weekend’s Senior B men’s fastball provincial championships at MacDonald Park in James Bay, the Sooke Loggers are poised to come out on top, said player and manager Brian Banner.
Fresh from their success at the Canada Day long weekend tournament at MacDonald Park where they went 6 and 0 with a 14-1 victory over the Abbotsford Yard Dogs, Banner said their team is hot where it counts.
“All our pitching has been really strong this year with Scott Leiph and Sean Koster — Sean’s really coming around now at the end of the year.”
How strong? In 20 innings pitched during the regular season, Lieph has allowed only four hits with 44 strikeouts. Koster has pitched 28 innings with 17 hits allowed and retiring 59 batters to the bench.
Hitting has been no problem either with the team batting .350 over 249 trips to the plate.
Amazingly, the Loggers have lost only a pair of games all year. One each to Abbotsford and the South Hill Giants at a tourney in Kelowna, said Banner, who is also the team’s catcher.
The Loggers were luckily awarded a bye for the first round and will meet the winner of the game between the Nanaimo Wheatsheaf and the Strawberry Vale Braves on Saturday. The provincials start Friday at MacDonald Park at 6 p.m. and run all weekend until Sunday at 2 p.m. The other teams participating are the Swiftsure Seals, Victoria Merchants, Nanaimo Palladian, and the Parksville Red Sox.
Banner said following this weekend’s competition, the team will be getting ready for the Western Canadian Championships in Stonewall, Manitoba from August 12 to the 15 which is also the last tournament of the year.
