Ridge Meadows Royals won the championship title in competing for the Bantam AA provincial championship last weekend at the Pitt Meadows Athletic Park.
According to Miranda Carpenter, the Ridge Meadows Minor Baseball Association’s administration vice president, the win was against a very strong team.
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“We defeated the Cowichan Valley Mustangs, who hadn’t lost a game all season including the round robin of the final tournament, 9-4,” she said.
The Cowichan Valley Mustangs were the favourite to win this division. They came into the final game undefeated over the course of the regular season. The Ridge Meadows Royals started the game off with seven runs in the first inning off four hits chasing the Mustangs starting pitcher before the first half inning was even over, said Carpenter.
The game settled down after the first couple innings, and both teams went scoreless over the third, fourth and fifth innings.
“The Royals kept the pressure on with some amazing defence only allowing four runs over the seven-inning game,” she added.
The tournament which was held from Aug. 20 through 22, at Pitt Meadows Athletic Park, saw the Royals play against the North Delta Rays, the Victoria Triangle, the Prince George Knights, and the Cowichan Valley Mustangs.
The team won 10-9 against the Rays and 17-14 against the Triangle. They however suffered a 9-12 loss against the Knights and a 4-14 loss against the Mustangs, before defeating the Mustangs in the finals.
Linden Happell earned the victory on the mound allowing only six hits, and three runs over five and one-third innings with nine strike-outs. He was also responsible for two line-outs, one of which he turned into a double-play, Carpenter explained.
“Braeden ‘Hammer’ Fotheringhame came in to relieve for the final one and two-third innings recording the last five outs to earn the save. The middle infield kept things tight, and a layout steal by Shortstop Taasyn Murray to second baseman Kobe Morwood for the second out of the bottom of the seventh, pretty much sealed the deal,” she said.
Carpenter also said that every member of the 13-man roster contributed in some way towards this Championship.
“The coaching staff of Scott Hough, Ryan Carpenter and Steve Clarke dedicated countless hours of time to this team, and it has paid off. They came together as a team, fought through months of development before game-play was allowed to resume, and they came out on top,” she said.
The victory banner will now go up at Pitt Meadows Athletic Park Diamond 1 sometime next month where their names will be immortalised.
Coach Ryan Carpenter, elated by the victory said, “a true commitment to hard work and perseverance led this team to victory. This season was a rollercoaster of highs and lows, and the boys left everything out on the field. I am super proud of them and can’t wait to see what the future holds for these athletes.”
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