The Vernon Canadians AA Peewees finished second at the Spring Interior Zone Baseball Championships in West Kelowna.
The C’s entered the tournament seeded fourth of seven teams but riding a four-game winning streak. In their first game of the modified round robin they faced the No. 1 seeded Kamloops squad and came out with a 6-5 victory. Kaleb Murray stated the game for the Canadians, going three innings, allowing one hit and two runs while striking out eight. Blayke Butler was 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs in the win.
In the second game ,Vernon scored early and often in a dominating 11-3 win over the West Kelowna Diamondbacks. Murray, Jonah Lee, and Morgan Hackman each had RBI singles in the first inning, and Butler and Mark Johnson led the offence with three hits and two RBIs apiece.
Wyatt Cleverley started and threw one inning, giving up three hits and two runs. Butler and Hackman pitched strong in relief to seal the W (Butler with two innings of one-hit ball and five Ks, and Hackman with three innings of three-hit ball and threeKs). Vincent Sanfilippo had a great game with a hit, a walk, two stolen bases and a run scored.
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The win over West Kelowna secured a semifinal berth for the Cs against the COMBA (Kelowna) Sundevils.
Vernon was all over the basepaths with nine hits and sevenwalks in the game but struggled early, not scoring with the bases loaded and two out and also first and third with nobody out. The Sundevils led 7-3 after three innings when Vernon started clawing back.
Lee walked to start the fourth, stole his way to third and scored on a passed ball to make it 7-4. Johnson scored on a double by Butler in the fifth to make it 7-5, and Butler was cashed in by a Hackman single to make it 7-6. Lee scored on a bases loaded walk to tie the game and Jordan Herrington then knocked in two more with a single to centre to put the game in Vernon’s hands. Lee pitched three innings of no-hit, one-run baseball to shut things down.
Vernon faced Salmon Arm in the final and though they outhit them 11-10, five uncharacteristic fielding errors by the Cs sealed their fate. Murray pitched very well but didn’t get the support he needed behind him in the 13-4 loss. Devon Sales-Parno and Dominic Meyer pitched solidly in relief. Meyer scored twice for the Cs and Murray had three hits in the loss.
It was the first time a Vernon team had made the final since 2014.
“Great overall weekend for us in West Kelowna,” said Cs coach Nathan Lee. “We have been building a ton over the past two months and the boys played some of our best baseball in this big playoff tournament against the best 13U teams in the Interior. We coaches are proud of the way these kids represented Vernon baseball.”
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