The North Island Cubs 15U AA baseball team settled for second place at the Final Four Tournament this past weekend in Cloverdale, dropping a close game to the undefeated host, Cloverdale Spurs, in the Championship final.
In their Inaugural season at the Bantam AA level, the North Island team surpassed everyone’s expectations by making it all the way to the final game of the prestigious Final four tournament.
In Game 1 the North Island Cubs faced Ladner to start the tournament. After four innings, the Cubs trailed 5-0 but put up four runs in the bottom of the 5th inning to cut the deficit to one. The Cubs would take the lead in the bottom of the 6th, only to give up three runs in the top of the 7th to complete the comeback for Ladner and hand the Cubs an 8-6 loss in their opener. Leading the cubs with two hits was Sean Bow. Zach Dobie had a double with Linden Hicks and Brian Robbins adding singles.
Next up for the Cubs were the Cloverdale Spurs who sported an undefeated record on the season. Cloverdale would put up three runs in the bottom of the 1st and never look back adding three more runs over the next six innings in a well-played game. The Cubs would fall 6-1 to the Spurs. Walker Maximick led the Cubs hitting with a double and a single while Kaleb Robertson also had a two-hit game. Zach Dobie gave up four earned runs over five innings for the cubs.
Game 3 on Sunday morning saw the Cubs in a must-win situation against Surrey/Newton, with the winner moving on to the final for a rematch against the Spurs for the Championship. Marcus Peterson would get the start on the bump for the Cubs and he was good as he came up clutch pitching a complete game four-hit shutout, striking out nine batters. The cubs came out swinging in this one with three-hit performances coming from Brian Robbins, Walker Maximick, and Zach Dobie. Robbins had two doubles while Dobie hit a two-run home run and added two singles in a 10-0 Cubs win, advancing them to the championship final against the undefeated Spurs.
At 3:30 Sunday afternoon, the Cubs would get another shot at the Cloverdale team for all the marbles and the provincial final four crown. The Cubs would put up five runs in the top of the 1st to jump out to an early lead versus the heavily favoured Spurs, however, they would fail to put the nail in the coffin, allowing Cloverdale to chip away at the lead.
With the North Island team still leading by five runs with three innings to go, the momentum started to swing in the Spurs favour as they shutout the Cubs’ offense for the final three innings and put up six runs of their own to complete the comeback. Brian Robbins and Zach Dobie had multi-hit games while Walker Maximick, Sean Bow, Brody Warner and Linden Hicks also had hits. Kaleb Robertson went six innings on the mound for the Cubs.
The North Island team now has a short break before starting their 2020 fall ball season.
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