It came down to the final out to determine the playoff picture for the 2012 B.C. Bid Group Senior Men's Baseball championship.
Before the final game between the already eliminated Kelowna Jays and Trail Orioles began there were at least three different situations that could've occurred. In the end, the Orioles hung on for a 10-9 win leaving five teams with identical 2-1 records.
The Nanaimo Coalminers earned the right to a bye straight into Monday's 9:45 a.m. game at Citizen Field. They'll face the lowest seeded winner of the Sunday night games.
Kamloops finished second and will play Trail at 7:15 p.m. The Orioles lost the second tie-breaking formula with the Prince George Grays. Both teams allowed 13 runs over three games but the Grays scored 16 while the Orioles only crossed the plate 14 times over the course of the three round-robin games.
The Grays will play the Langley Blaze after Sunday's first playoff game wraps up, likely sometime after 9 p.m.
The highest seeded winner to emerge from Sunday's playoff games will receive a bye straight to Monday's 12:45 p.m. final.
Order of finish for the five playoff teams was: Nanaimo, Kamloops, Langley, Prince George, Trail.
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In the 10-9 win by the Orioles over the Jays, Connor Jones when from goat to hero in a matter of minutes in the top of the seventh inning.
With two outs all Jones needed to do was stop the ground ball hit to him at shortstop and toss it to second base for the forced out, but the ball sailed out to left field, putting runners on the corners for the Jays.
The next batter for the Jays hit a ball straight at Jones, who jumped about a foot off the ground and caught the fly ball in his glove to end the threat.
In a wild game, the Jays opened up a 3-0 advantage in the first inning but the Orioles responded with five runs of their own in the bottom half for a 5-3 lead . Trail scored at least one run in the first five innings opening up an 8-3 advantage.
But the Jays rebounded with six runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 9-8 lead. Trail tied the game in the bottom of four and then Jim Maniago drove in the winning run in the fifth inning.
Maniago was three for four with an RBI.
Kellen Jones, twin brother of Conner, shut the Jays offence down with three innings of no-hit ball for the win, his second of the tournament.
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Namaimo clinched the first bye after Darren Kolk tossed a complete game (seven innings) no hitter for an 8-0 win over the Langley Blaze on Sunday afternoon.
