A trio of former Langley Blaze ball players are playing a prominent role in helping their baseball team reach the NCAA 2013 tournament.
Brooklyn Foster, Michael Krische and Devon Stewart helped the Canisius Golden Griffins qualify for the regional tournament of the College World Series, where they will face the country’s top-ranked team, the North Carolina Tar Heels, in Chapel Hill, N.C.
The game is on May 31.
The Golden Griffins, a school out of Buffalo, are in a pool with North Carolina, Florida Atlantic and Towson.
Canisius goes into the College World Series with a 42-15 record and fresh off an undefeated performance in winning the NCAA Division 1 MAAC championship.
Foster, a graduating senior and starting catcher, made the MAAC all-tournament team with a .400 batting average and a .625 on-base percentage.
He is hitting .353 for the season with 30 RBIs.
Foster was on base four times in the final and scored three times in a 12-11 win over Siena to win the MAAC championship.
Krische, who was most valuable player of the 2011 B.C. Premier Baseball League provincial championships for Langley, is the Golden Griffins’ starting centre-fielder. He hit .333 with a .555 OBP in the tournament. He also drove in the winning run in the tournament opener, a 2-1 win over Marist University. And in the team’s second game — against top-seed Rider University — Krische went 3-for-4.
For the season, the sophomore is hitting .252 with 19 RBIs.
And Stewart — a 2012 all-American and MAAC rookie of the year — is a starting pitcher for the team. He came on in relief against Rider with the score tied at five, and after giving up two earned runs, Stewart held them scoreless for the next four innings as the Golden Griffins rallied for the 18-7 victory.
Stewart is 5-5 on the season with a 4.98 earned run average.
