The Penticton SOMBA Tigers lost a pair of heartbreakers in the opening round and were eliminated early in U18 AAA BC Minor Baseball Association provincial championships in Victoria recently.
The Tigers were up against the Cowichan Mustangs in the second contest which was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning when they gave up an infield single for what proved to be the winning run.
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“It was just an unbelievably well-played game,” said Tigers head coach Aqil Samuel. “There were no errors on either side and three hits apiece.”
Penticton opened the tournament against the South Fraser Giants who jumped out to a 2-0 lead before the Tigers rallied to go ahead 3-2.
“The Giants then tied it up and we had one bad inning and wound up losing 7-3,” said Samuel.
The Tigers wrapped up the round robin and their first season in the league on a winning note, knocking off the host Victoria squad 7-4.
READ MORE: Penticton Tigers place second in tourney, look ahead to provincials
“If we’d played that tournament again, we’d have had a shot at winning, anybody could have won,” said Samuel. “The Mid-Island Mariners (Nanaimo) ended up winning in the end and we split with them and we split with Cowichan all season.
“I wish we could have done a little better but for the first year in the league it was big steps for Penticton baseball.”
In other provincial action the Tigers U13 AAA won gold and the U13 A Tigers won silver.
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Mark Brett | Reporter
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