If all first times were like this the Langley Blaze would be at the front of the line all the time.
In their inaugural trip to the Bid Group B.C. Senior Men's Baseball championship in 2012 the Blaze captured the trophy after posting a 5-1 record in the Aug. 3-6 tournament.
Dave Diachuk, manager and coach of the Blaze, said he was proud of his team for fighting through a season riddled with injuries after they wrapped up the weekend tournament at Citizen Field in Prince George with a 6-1 win over the Kamloops Sun Devils (3-2).
"It feels pretty damn great," said Diachuk. "It's our third year in existence and we've managed to track down a certain number of players and have done a good job in organizing everything."
Since the spring the Blaze have watched seven players go down to injury, including Prince George's Brooklyn Foster, who suffered a partial tear of his MCL during a Canada Day game in Nanaimo.
"We had a fairly decent roster and we managed to fill in the spots and make up for the injuries," said Diachuk.
Blaze first baseman Scott Webster was the tournament MVP after going 7-for-16 at the plate for a .438 batting average, with three homeruns and five RBIs.
Corey Parsons picked up the complete game, two-hit win against the Sun Devils, fanning eight. His only mistake came in the fifth inning when he gave up a homerun to Dave Hole. Graig Merritt, Bob Foerster and Tyler Willson all went deep for the Blaze.
After starting the tournament with consecutive wins - 8-7 over the Kelowna Jays (0-3) and 7-0 over the Trail Orioles (2-1) - the Blaze were no-hit by the Nanaimo Coalminers' Darren Kolk in an 8-0 loss.
In the playoff round the Blaze rebounded from an early 2-0 first inning deficit to the Prince George Grays for a 6-3 win. Karl Malacek picked up the win allowing only one hit - a home run by Brandon Hunter in the third inning - through four innings after giving up four hits in the first.
In Monday's early game, the Blaze topped the Coalminers 4-1 to advance to the final against the Sun Devils. Kamloops earned the bye to the final after hammering the Orioles 16-1 in five innings in the first playoff game.
Diachuk said it didn't come easy but his team just persisted all weekend.
"We've battled the whole way and we had tough games every game we've had," said Diachuk. "We just sucked it up and got it done."
The victory earned the the Blaze a trip to the 2013 Canadian Senior Men's championship in Windsor, Ont.
Jeremy Kral, a former member of the Prince George Knights organization, played catcher for the Sun Devils during the weekend. Kral said after pounding out 16 hits against the Orioles the night before they just couldn't connect their bats with the ball.
"We didn't play that well," said the 22 year old. "They played better then us."
Kral joined the Sun Devils in preparation for his transfer to the University of British Columbia where he'll join the Thunderbirds baseball team after playing with Douglas College last season.
"I had a pretty good year," said Kral about playing at Douglas College. "I made the all-star team and I won the Gold Glove in the conference."
Kral will be in his third year of academics when he begins classes at UBC in September and he's already starting to prepare for what the future might hold for him when his studies are done.
"I'd love to play professional baseball but if I don't I'll be happy finishing up my bachelor's degree and kind of getting on with the next step of life," said Kral.
