Six teams, including the Prince George Westcana Electric Axemen, have finished round-robin play at the RE/MAX Centre City Baseball Canada Senior Championship with 2-1 records.
Only two clubs -- the Halifax Pelham Canadians of Nova Scotia and the Strathroy Royals of Ontario -- have been eliminated from medal contention. Halifax and Strathroy both went 0-3.
The Axemen completed their round-robin schedule with a 10-0 thrashing of Halifax on Saturday afternoon. The game was cut to five innings by the mercy rule.
The Axemen -- who beat the defending-champion Windsor Stars of Ontario 2-0 on Thursday and fell 3-2 to the Fort Saskatchewan A's of Alberta on Friday -- clinched first place in their pool with their Saturday win and advanced directly to a Sunday semifinal (9:30 a.m., Citizen Field). In the semi, they'll face either the B.C.-representative Victoria Mavericks or the A's.
The Chatham Ironmen of New Brunswick topped the other pool and will play in a Sunday semifinal at 12:30 p.m., also at Citizen Field. The Ironmen will take on the Reston Rockets of Manitoba or the Stars.
The semifinal winners will battle for gold at 7 p.m. Sunday and the losers will play for bronze at 4 p.m.
Against the Canadians on Saturday, the Axemen scored three runs in the first inning and never looked back. They ended up out-hitting Halifax 10-3.
P.G. product Brandon Hunter -- who had four hits, three RBI and two runs scored -- was named his team's player of the game. So far, Hunter is the tournament's leading hitter, with a .667 batting average.
Prince George residents Jeremy Kral, Justin Fillion and Matt Stang also made contributions in the win. Kral, the Axemen catcher, smacked a two-RBI single in the fourth inning, while Fillion had a single in the fifth and scored a run. Stang, meanwhile, drew a walk in the fourth inning and later scored.
Winning pitcher Leon Boyd finished with six strikeouts and three walks. Craig Field took the loss.
Earlier Saturday, the Mavericks defeated the Ironmen 6-3. In that game, Prince George players also came up with big efforts. P.G.'s Jon Bourassa -- who worked 5 1/3 innings -- was the winning pitcher and Jay Cook continued to swing a hot bat for the Mavericks. Cook smacked a first-inning leadoff home run and now has a .500 batting average through three games.
Tickets for the Baseball Canada Senior Championship are available for purchase at Citizen Field.
