In the end the Prince George Grays didn't have enough firepower at the Western Canadian Senior Men's Baseball Championship.
The Grays, who attended the tournament in Provost, Alta., after the Trail baseball association realized they would be unable to field a team to represent British Columbia, finished the tournament with a 3-2 overall record.
In the final, the Grays lost 9-5 to the Saskatoon Smoking Guns and had to settle for the silver medal. Jon Bourassa, Cody Cole and Jesse Dill shared pitching duties for the Grays in the final.
Grays manager and shortstop Jay Cook said it was a good weekend of baseball with great weather.
"We played well and received great pitching in the first three games, but our Saturday night game had to be finished the next morning due to darkness, which messed up our sleep schedule and our pitching," said Cook.
The Grays lost the two-day game 6-2 to the host Provost. Jason Tripp, a pickup player for the Grays, started the game on the mound and pitched four innings Saturday, while Tyrus Jocko finished the final three innings Sunday morning. The gold-medal game was played Sunday at 10:45 a.m.
In the opening game, the Grays edged the Smoking Guns 6-5 as Bourassa pitched six strong innings and Cole earned the save. Dill led the Grays to a 12-1 win over the Calgary Cards, pitching five innings before making way for Brandon Graham in the sixth inning before the mercy rule came into play.
Curtis Sawchuk pitched a complete game in the Grays 5-1 win over the Elmwood Giants of Manitoba, but was unavailable for Sunday's final as he headed for college in St. Louis.
Cook said the Grays had a good summer with decent showings in tournaments in Kamloops and Burnaby in addition to their second-place finish at Westerns. The only blip on the summer calendar was an 0-3 finish at the provincial championship in Victoria on the August long weekend.
Cook said the Grays have already put in their bid to attend the 2014 Western Canadian championship. The team with the best record in B.C. that bid will represent the province next year.
In August 2015 the Western Canadian Senior Men's Baseball Championship will be hosted by Prince George at Citizen Field.
* The Prince George Senior Baseball League playoffs resume this week. Tonight at 6:30 p.m., the Queensway Auto World Red Sox will try to finish off the Inland Control & Services Tigers in Game 4 of their best-of-five semifinal. The Red Sox lead two games to one. The other semifinal resumes Wednesday (6:30 p.m.) with the Shooters Pub Gladiators leading the Dawn Till Dusk Contracting Titans two games to one. All PGSBL games are at Citizen Field.
