For a team that didn’t win any games at their provincial baseball tournament, the mosquito AA Duncan RiverCats came remarkably close to winning the B.C. title.
The RiverCats lost three games in Surrey and tied one, but two of those defeats were by a single run. The story would have been vastly different had those results been a little different.
“They were very close games,” head coach Clint Steigenberger said. “Twice, we battled from behind and caught up, but we ran out of time or we couldn’t pull the trigger. They could have gone either way. If we had won two one-run games, we would have been in the finals.”
The RiverCats showed their determination in the tournament opener against Burnaby Minor last Friday morning. After Burnaby went ahead 4-0 early on, the players started chirping the RiverCats from the bench, but the Duncan boys quieted them down once they got their bats going. A close play at the plate and a runner stranded on third ended up making all the difference in that one.
“It came down to literally the last bats,” Steigenberger said.
The RiverCats suffered their only blowout loss that afternoon, falling to Newton 13-0. They came back on Saturday to lose 6-5 to Tsawwassen, then ended the tournament with a 7-7 tie against South Okanagan.
It didn’t help the RiverCats that they didn’t have to play in a tournament ahead of provincials. When none of the other mosquito AA teams on Vancouver Island decided to contest the zone title, the RiverCats advanced to provincials by default.
“If we had zones, we would have been through that pressure already,” Steigenberger said.
At the tournament, the RiverCats benefitted from some great pitching and some outstanding defence from the outfielders and middle infielders. The entire season was an impressive one for the young players, some of whom hadn’t played organized baseball before.
“It was a lot of fun, a really good experience,” Steigenberger said. “It was a good eye-opener for a lot of the kids. Their coaches next year are going to see a huge difference in their play.”
