The Kelowna Sun Devils hope they’ve saved their best for last as they travel to Richmond this weekend for the B.C. U18 AAA baseball’s provincial championship tournament.
The sixth-seeded Sun Devils will play their first of three preliminary round games on Friday night against Aldergove.
Kelowna will then see South Fraser on Saturday, and the Vernon Canadians on Sunday.
“We have a great shot at provincials this year as we have beaten everybody in our league,” said Sun Devils head coach Rob Law. “By no means will provincials be a cake walk, we need to raise our game to another level, but our players are definitely ready for the test.”
Eight teams will compete over four days at the provincial tournament.
The semi-finals and final will be played on Monday.
In 2015, their inaugural season, the Sun Devils experienced the expected growing pains of a new program, going 11-29-1 and finishing in 14th place.
With six returning players and seniors leading the way in 2016—Brandon Denis, Jonathan McCarthy, Brandon Mallam-Kunz, Noah Ringness-Law, Gavin Barrett and Kurtis Wall–Law said the Sun Devils players all worked “their butts off” in the offseason.
And it paid dividends.
In just their second season at the midget AAA level, the Sun Devils posted a 22-18 record to finish sixth overall, surpassing even their head coach’s expectations.
“Our goal starting this program was to reach provincials in the third year of its existence,” said Sun devils coach Rob Law. “Well, we have definitely exceeded those expectations.”
