The Ridge Meadows Royals bantam triple A squad won a Kamloops tourney on the weekend. (Contributed)

The Ridge Meadows Royals bantam triple A squad won a Kamloops tourney on the weekend. (Contributed)

Royals bantams win Canada Day tourney in Kamloops

Ridge Meadows squad gets great pitching

sports@mapleridgenews.com

The Ridge Meadows Royals won a Canada Day bantam AAA tournament in Kamloops on the weekend.

The Royals beat Nanaimo 6-3 in the championship game, led by Jackson Buchan, who threw four innings without allowing a run.

Shortstop Pearce Radke led the offence with a pair of hits and an RBI in three at-bats, and centre fielder Dylan McCuaig made a diving catch to stop a ball from getting into the left-centre gap.

The Royals beat the Red Deer Braves 4-0 in the semi-final, with a two-run home run off the bat of Taigan Godin.

Chris Gibson pitched the semi-final, going six shutout innings and striking out 11. Gibson also had a great start in round-robin play, pitching five and striking out eight hitters as his team beat the Okanagan Athletics 2-0.

“We got really good performances on the mound,” said head coach Jason Boldt. “It was really a great weekend, and a great team effort.”

Buchan, Gibson, Owen Fernandez and Mason Lemmen all won game MVP awards in the round-robin.

The Royals finished second after pool play, with a 5-4 loss to Nanaimo being the only blemish. Their other wins were over Kelowna 9-0 and Sherwood Park 9-1.

Maple Ridge News