Prince George Minor Baseball conquered the Kelowna diamonds this past weekend in the annual Valley of Champions tournament.
Three of the Knights’ seven competing teams won gold; the top-level Midget group, Bantam AA, and Peewee A.
The winning teams finished a combined 15-2 against various B.C. ball clubs, including an undefeated 6-0 record by the Peewee Knights.
They rallied to a 5-2 title-clinching performance on Sunday (July 14) over Vernon, following a very close 1-0 semi-final victory over Victoria earlier that day.
On an impressive note, the Peewees got into double-digit scores in all four round-robin games:
- 14-7 over Abbotsford
- 18-4 over Surrey
- 10-9 over Vancouver
- 19-4 over Vernon
At the midget level, Prince George went 4-1 in the four-team competition.
They managed a 7-2 thumping over Central Okanagan’s AAA team in the final, who handed the Knights their lone loss during group-play earlier on the weekend.
They outscored their opponents 32-13 across the three-day event for their second title in three 2019 tournaments.
The Bantam Knights, coincidentally, had some similar stats in comparison to their Peewee and Midget counterparts at the Valley of Champions.
They defeated Surrey-Newton 5-2 to claim their gold medal and only had one setback in the tournament (5-1 record) by losing their second preliminary match (just like the Midgets) at the hands of Ladner.
Every other game resulted in the Bantams reaching double-digit scores (just like the Peewees), including their 10-2 semi-final win over Tri-City.
The results of Prince George’s other four teams are:
- Bantam A = 0-4
- Peewee AAA = 0-4
- Mosquito AAA = 2-2
- Mosquito A = 0-4
For the Midget and Bantam Knights, they’ll both be competing in the 2019 Baseball B.C. Championships next month in the lower mainland, Aug. 8 to 11.
The Under-18 AA Midgets are going for their third straight provincial title in Burnaby, while the Under 15 AA Bantams are looking to earn redemption in Chilliwack this year after losing in the 2018 final to Vancouver.
The Midget Knights are back in action at Citizen Field this week for Prince George Senior Men’s Baseball, facing the Tigers at 9 p.m. on Wednesday (July 17) and hosting the Red Sox 7 p.m. on Thursday (July 18).
