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Trail leads to victory for District 4 champs |
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Written by Citizen Staff
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Friday, 18 July 2008 |
Prince George Cap-abilities pitcher Mark Mosure delivers to the plate after coming into the game in the fourth inning to replace starter Jared Young, who did not allow a hit through three innings against the Trail All-Stars in their opening game at the 11-and-12-year-old Little League provincial championship at Joe Martin Field. (Citizen photo by David Mah)
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WHITE ROCKLITTLE LEAGUEHART HIGHWAY
Tight game, great result for the District 4 champions from Prince George at the 11-and-2-year-old Little League baseball championship.
Cole Laviolette drove in Jared Young with the winning run in the bottom of the fourth inning to lift the Cap-abilities All-Stars to a 1-0 win over Trail at Joe Martin Field.
Young pitched three innings of no-hit baseball until he was lifted after the third inning, as per Little League rules.
Mark Mosure came on in relief and kept the shutout intact.
Cap-Abilities will face Hastings of vancouver today at 11:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, the Prince George LTN Contracting baseball team fought just to be included in the provincial Little League tournament.
That’s nothing compared to the battle they face to keep pace with the seven other teams in the tournament.
Prince George’s second all-star team found out immediately why White Rock is considered the favourite to advance to the nationals in Nova Scotia. White Rock needed just three offensive innings to pound out a 32-0 - yes, 32-0 - whitewash in the tournament opener on Friday.
Prince George seemed to be in the same ballpark through an inning-and-a-half, giving up four runs in the bottom of the first and loading the bases in the top of the second. But White Rock pounded out three home runs and scored 14 times in the bottom of the second before the locals had found an out, and proceeded to score 19 times in the inning. White Rock added another nine runs in the third, and the only defensive blemish came when a meek fly ball by Prince George’s Chris Smith fell between three confused fielders in the top of the fourth for LTN Contracting’s lone hit.
Every White Rock hitter had at least one hard-hit ball. What’s impressive is that White Rock, with an association membership of 1,800 kids, is the defending Canadian champion, but not one player remains from that club. All the members of last year’s roster graduated.
“Our kids still found a way to remain upbeat after the game, but we have to make the plays on the balls we can make plays on,” said Prince George manager Marcel Belanger.
“Those guys can really hit. We knew we were under the gun. Our pitching was fine, their kids are very strong and they hit it - hit it hard. We have to come out with the same attitude (today, 11:30 a.m. against Hastings), but we have the jitters out now for the big tournament.”
The game that followed was a barn-burner, with extra innings required to decide a winner. Anthony Cusati’s RBI single scored Ryan Matsuda with two out in the seventh inning, giving Hastings (Vancouver) a 6-5 win over Layritz (Victoria).
Keenan Williams was the winning pitcher. Hastings built a 4-0 lead in the first inning, three of the runs scoring on Robbey Panico’s three-run home run, but Hastings then sat back and watched Layritz scrape together enough runs to force extra time.
n In what was the game of the day for late-inning dramatics, Dunbar defeated Mount Seymour 11-10.
Mount Seymour scored six runs in the top of the sixth to tie it at 10, but Dunbar wasn’t quite done and ended the game with another run in the bottom of the sixth.
n Play was delayed for about a half hour on Friday morning as the grounds crew worked to deal with a marshy right field. The suspected culprit is a broken irrigation line, though the rain overnight Thursday did not help matters. Belanger, who was covered in grime with specs of mud on his glasses, was quick to thank Hurricane High Pressure for the quick use of a pumper truck - without it, the tournament might not have started as planned.
“Right field is still a little bit wet, but we’re doing the best we can with it,” said Belanger, the past president of P.G. Youth Baseball.
“Hopefully the wind comes up a bit and helps it dry. We’ve spent a lot of time on this, a lot of people helping. Without Hurricane... we just can’t remove that much water that fast. The sod is so saturated right now.”
It should be noted that parents from the LTN squad were right in the middle of the activity, while other parents and coaches who were being counted on to pitch in in the time of need were nowhere to be seen, adding to the frustration level of those who were shoveling and raking.
n Joe Martin Field is located west of the Hart Highway in the north end of the city at 4055 Balsum Rd.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 07 September 2008 )
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