The Vernon Kal Tire Canadians needed a win over the North Delta Blue Jays Saturday to play in today’s semifinals at the B.C. Pee Wee AA Baseball Championships at Thompson Park in Port Coquitlam.
Vernon was 2-1 heading into a Saturday afternoon round-robin game with the Jays.
After opening the 10-team tournament with a win over the hosts Thursday morning, the Canadians lost 4-2 to the Campbell River Tyees that afternoon and outlasted the Kelowna Cubs 8-6 in a scorching Friday matinee.
Leftfielder Falcon Thomas took MVP against Kelowna, going 3-for-3 with a walk and a two-run homer which gave the C’s a 6-5 lead in the top of the sixth inning. He finished with three RBI.
Chris McIntosh went three innings before being relieved by Brady Beacom, who helped his own cause by going 2-for-4 with two runs. Beacom smacked a sharp single to get on base before Thomas stroked his dinger.
“The bottom half of our header really came up big for us,” said Vernon head coach Mark Batchelor, who was ecstatic with his club’s defence.
Third baseman Noah Foufoulas backhanded a hard grounder on one bounce and threw out the batter at first base.
Shortstop Carter Morris recorded an unassisted double play and then in the sixth, dove deep in the six hole to stab a hot grounder and throw the runner out by a step, with Ryan Gamage stretching hard to make the catch at first.
Catcher Chase Batchelor threw out one runner trying to swipe second, while going 1-for-2 while getting plunked twice. Kal Tire ran into a solid pitcher against Campbell River.
“We made a lot of good contact, but we hit it right at them,” said coach Batchelor. “We hit a lot of fly balls that normally would have dropped in for singles.”
Batchelor pitched 5 2/3 innings to take MVP with Gamage earning the final four outs. Batchelor, Beacom and Gamage were the only C’s to manage hits.
