River Kings cruise into senior men's semifinal

Chad Ghostkeeper is downright scary when he gets bat in his hands.
The Prince George River Kings catcher put the fear into the Freshii Hitmen of Prince George Saturday afternoon at the Canadian Native Fastball Championships when he hit a two-run home run. If that wasn't enough to make the Hitmen tremble, with his next plate appearance in the third inning Ghostkeeper launched another rocket into the stratosphere at Spruce City Stadium.
It's what Prince George fastball fans have come to expect from the 45-year-old veteran and his hot stick ignited the River Kings to a 13-6 victory over their crosstown rivals.
Grant Patterson of Brantford, Ont., made his first appearance in a River Kings uniform at Spruce City Stadium and with the exception of Kalen Bird's RBI single in the second inning, Patterson was cooking along comfortably with gas, nursing an 8-1 lead, when Hitmen pitcher Norm Linton lit him up for a two-run homer in the bottom of the third.
Jarrett Potskin's single plated two more River King runs in the fifth inning but the Hitmen countered with three of their own in the fifth to make it a 10-6 game. In the seventh, Jarrett Potskin swatted a two-run shot and the next batter, leadoff hitter Evan Potskin, teed off on Linton with a solo home run to cap the scoring.
"I think we were just set and ready for the game and our experience in our lineup and our hitters kind of showed in the score," said River Kings coach/first baseman Keith Henry. "Chad is one of the guys we rely upon for offence as a leader on the team and he set the tone as the second batter with his two-run home run.
"Evan is our leadoff hitter and he's there to get on to to hit a long ball, it's a great one-two punch. Jarrett is one of our younger guys and his stick is coming around and that's good to see our younger guys contributing to our offence."
The win advanced the River Kings into Saturday's 8 p.m. semifinal against the Westbank Cardinals, who beat the NB Petro Hawks of Regina 7-0.
Riding Ghostkeeper's home run heroics, the River Kings went on to defeat the Cardianls to advance to the A-final Snday at noon. The score was not available.

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