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Written by TED CLARKE, Citizen staff
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Thursday, 04 September 2008 |
Picturesque Prince George Citizen Field played host to its final game of the season on Thursday as the Inland Control Tigers, dark uniforms, captured their third-straight Prince George Senior Baseball League championship with a 6-2 victory, clinching the best-of-five series in four games. (David Mah photo)
The Inland Control and Services Tigers completed their Prince George Senior Baseball League playoff three-peat at Citizen Field, sending the Westwood Sports Pub Royals to a 6-2 defeat -- and another off-season of soul-searching.
The Royals have fallen prey to the Tigers the past three seasons in the final. Thursday’s clincher wrapped up the best-of-five final series 3-1.
The Tigers had one big inning of offence, scoring four runs in the fourth off starter Derreck Goodine. The veteran right-hander gave up doubles to Steve Sutherland and Curtis Colebank, while Cory Therrien and Angelo Desantis each delivered base hits to give the Tigers a 5-2 lead.
Brodie Norn did the rest, pitching a full seven innings while allowing just five hits and one earned run, a blast in the first inning from Ron Hutchinson with Chris Chapman already aboard because of a throwing error.
It was the second win of the series for Norn, the playoff MVP, who shut down the Royals 5-1 in Game 1. The Royals trounced the Tigers 11-1 in the second game, then lost 6-5 in eight innings in Game 3. Norn finished with a 0.74 earned run average and posted a 3-0 record in five playoff appearances.
Sutherland wrapped up the playoffs with 15 RBI and was named the top post-season hitter. He came into Thursday’s game batting .321 with nine hits, six of them doubles. He went 2-for-4 on Thursday.
“It seemed in the whole series, everyone chipped in, it wasn’t just two or three guys, it was everyone, and that was the difference for us,” said Tigers shortstop Adam Norn. “We know there are a lot of good hitters on that team and they made me pay for it when I pitched (Game 2).
“Brodie pitched two awesome games to shut them down and that was a feat. He was just shutting down good hitters. It was fun to watch. It seemed whenever Steve got up to the plate, we knew something good was going to happen.”
Neither the Tigers nor the Royals dominated the regular season, finishing third and fourth respectively. The only time the Tigers won the regular season, in 2005, they lost out in the first round of the playoffs.
“You can never really judge a team from the season, there are so many games where guys are injured or you have 15 guys showing up and you’re just trying to get everyone in to play,” said Adam Norn. “We feel that when we get our 10 or 11 players out there that perform, we’re a tough lineup to beat.”
Royals first baseman Paul Wilson wasn’t about to argue that point, although he had planned to spend at least a few more hours on the field Thursday. A Royals’ win would have forced Game 5 in a doubleheader.
“I thought we were definitely were going to play two, but we just couldn’t string a rally together,” said Wilson, whose consistent bat went cold in the final two games.
“We had one bad inning and they scored four runs. It’s tough. I thought we played good defensively. They had clutch hits with guys in scoring position and we didn’t have enough guys in scoring position. Brodie Norn gave it to us good, twice.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 04 September 2008 )
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