Following up an earlier win in Mission, the Marine Harvest peewee A Tyees kicked off the Mainland Summer All Star Season with a gold medal at the Surrey All Star Kick Off Tournament on the Canada Day weekend. This tournament is the opening of Summer League play in the Lower Mainland and featured eight teams: Surrey, Cloverdale, Abbotsford, Tsawwassen, North Delta, Vernon, Richmond and Campbell River.
Starting with play on Saturday the Tyees defeated Vernon 18-8, behind an impressive offensive outing led by a River Fahey homerun off the right field foul pole. Strong pitching from Lynden Shuk and Jamie Ingersoll held the Vernon team in check.
Sunday saw the Tyees playing two games in soaring temperatures that reached 38 degrees. In a back and forth affair the Tyees prevailed 15-11 over the host Surrey team. Sage Cameron and Dayton Ring combined with Brodie Comerford, who closed out the win to give the Tyees a 2-0 record to start the tournament.
At 2-0, the Tyees had secured a birth in the semis entering their final round robin match with the North Delta Yankees. Despite a triple play led by Cameron, the Tyees fell to North Delta 12-7 but were still able to grab the top spot in pool A.
Heading into Canada Day Monday, the Tyees now crossed over into pool B to play the Cloverdale Spurs in a noon time matchup. In a close affair the Tyees pitching and defence held the opponent to five runs while the Tyees bats led the way to a 10-5 victory. Nick Macgregor won game MVP with several outstanding plays at first and by leading the Tyee offence.
The final was a rematch with the home town Surrey Cardinals, who reached the finals by beating Abbotsford 12-2. The Tyees went to work immediately and scored four runs in the top of the first and never looked back. Despite the best efforts of the Cardinals, the Tyees defence ended each rally with solid plays at shortstop from Nathan Chow and a strong catching performance from Nathan Lagos, who made it tough on Cardinal baserunners.
Nico Matheson pitched four strong innings, giving up one run and going 2-3 from the plate and winning game MVP honours as the Tyees won with a convincing 13-1 over the host team.
These wins were an impressive achievement as the Tyees played two games in five hours in temperatures nearing 40 degrees.
