The pressure was on Falcon Contracting Under-19 Team B.C. hitter Nicholas Potskin.
Down to the last out in the bottom of the sixth inning with the bases loaded and trailing Randy's A's 2-1 in Sunday's Potskin/Ghostkeeper Memorial fastball tournament semifinal, Potskin tried tochannel some lightning back into his aluminum bat.
He'd already launched a bolt that ended up a triple in the third inning to score his cousin, Chad Ghostkeeper, and needed one more base hit to bring home Ghostkeeper from third base with the tying run in the sixth. A win would put the Falcon juniors into the tournament final.
But like he has so many times at Spruce City Stadium, A's pitcher Collin McKenzie wasn't about blow the narrowest of leads. He worked the count on Potskin to 2-2, then served up a high fastball that caught the outside corner of the plate. Potskin took a stab at it with his bat but the ball was already past him.
"We were pretty close, most of the game we held it together, but pitching was most of it," said the 17-year-old Potskin. "He threw an outside riser that got me. I tried to pull back but it as too late."
Falcon finished third out of eight teams. The tournament was the first of the season for the Falcon U-19s, who will represent B.C. at the North American Indigenous Games, July 24-27 in Regina.
"I'd say we did pretty good and we're going to keep getting better as we get closer to the Games, and hopefully we'll have a good shot at winning it," said Potskin.
The five games they played at home on the weekend against men with long fastball resumes should be ideal preparation for the competition they'll face from their provincial age-group peers.
"The boys played well, they got some big hits at times," said Ghostkeeper, one of the Falcon team coaches. "Some of them came right from baseball and this is their first time playing fastball. That was our goal to get in the top three and we achieved it."
Josh Anderson of Vancouver, 17, joined his provincial teammates for the first time and showed his capabilities as a left-handed pitcher and designated hitter. But against McKenzie, who made few mistakes, there wasn't a whole lot Anderson could do to rally his team's offence.
"He's a smart pitcher and he gets these young kids chasing riseballs and you just try to teach them how to hit him, it takes patience," said Ghostkeeper. "We have a very solid squad and definitely some good hitters. We only lost 2-1 to a very good ball team for a chance to get to the final and I'm sure their confidence is high."
