They didn't win but the Prince George Grays showed they can compete with British Columbia's best.
The Grays finished the 2012 Bid Group B.C. Senior Men's Baseball championship with a 2-2 record, surprising many doubters by beating the Burnaby Bulldogs and defending champion Victoria Mavericks to earn a playoff spot. Prince George had an early 3-0 advantage against the eventual champion Langley Blaze (5-1) at Citizen Field but wound up bowing out of the playoff Sunday with a 6-3 loss.
Grays coach Craig Horswell said it's tough to lose but the team proved to everyone, especially themselves, that they can compete with anyone.
"I hate losing and obviously we want to continue playing and win the title, but at the same time to get those two big wins and to be in this game - against three of the better teams here - is really big for us," said Horswell. "It's going to go along way next year with the guys knowing we can compete with anybody. It's a really big weekend for us."
The Grays survived a late comeback by the Mavericks that tied the game 5-5 in the sixth inning and won it 7-5 in an extra inning after Jay Cook's bunted ball was overthrown at first, allowing him to follow Kalen Kirkpatrick around the bases to home plate.
"Staying in a game like that and being able to pull that [win] off, where they comeback and tie it and we get two more to win it in the extra inning, it's really huge for us and our morale," said Horswell. "That's really big for us to beat a team like that."
Saturday the Grays had a 4-1 lead over the Bulldogs and held on for a 4-3 victory as Curtis Sawchuk recorded a strikeout to secure the win a night after his ERA ballooned to 35.00 in one-third of inning in a 10-5 loss to the Kamloops Sun Devils.
Horswell said the success the Grays - an all-star squad with players from the Prince George Senior Men's League and various college programs - had in the Aug. 3-6 tournament shows the decisions they made in building the team were correct.
"We went with the philosophy this year that we were just going to use local guys," said Horswell. "We weren't going to have any imports or anything like that. It paid off.
"We want to build baseball in this city," he added. "We don't want to bring guys in that don't really give anything back to the community or give something for the younger players to aspire to. We really thought that if we could make it a completely local team then it would be something for the younger kids just coming up to look forward to. Maybe even some of those guys that go and play college will come back and play with us as well."
The Grays played together in two tournaments - in Maple Ridge in March and Red Deer in July - as a warm up for the provincial weekend. In Maple Ridge, a double-A tournament, the Grays won two games before Mother Nature rained out the rest of the games.
Horswell said even though the Grays went 0-3 in Red Deer the team played well.
"In Red Deer they were very close games and games we were in control for most of the game and then made some silly errors and gave up some runs at crucial times and couldn't come back," said Horswell. "I think we left that tournament with a positive feeling."
Playoff game
In their playoff with the Blaze the Grays jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning on four hits, including singles from Cook and Garrett Belanger who both scored. Justin Fillion also had a single and Mike Tomlinson had an RBI double, while Brandon Hunter had a sacrifice fly to bring Cook home.
But, other than a solo homerun by Hunter in the third inning to give the Grays a 3-0 lead, the bats went silent for the hosts the rest of the night as the Blaze's pitcher Karl Malacek settled down, finishing with four strikeouts and five hits in five innings of work to pick up the win.
Keenan Takatch pitched the sixth inning for the Blaze, setting up Dillion Reynolds for the save in the seventh.
"We didn't get hits when we needed them [Sunday] night," said Horswell. "We got a few early and then didn't get any in the last few innings."
Jon Bourassa pitched three and two-thirds innings for the Grays before Hunter moved from third base to the pitcher's mound. Hunter's night ended after facing six batters and giving up a pair of homers to Scott Webster and Brad Ferraro which put the Blaze up 4-3.
"We had thrown all our throwers just to try to get to this game," said Horswell. "It was just pitching by committee basically. Brandon did a heck of a job but he's more of a position player and good hitters are eventually going to get hits off of a guy who doesn't pitch full time."
An error in the sixth inning by second baseman Kalen Kirkpatrick eventually led to an unearned run by the Blaze and the first of two runs to solidify their victory.
"It's terrible," said Hunter. "We battled hard all weekend and to lose like that is tough. But we surprised a lot of people."
The Kelowna Jays (0-3), Mavericks (1-2) and Bulldogs (1-2) missed the playoffs, while the Nanaimo Coalminers (2-1) earned a bye into Monday's semifinal by winning Division 2. The Sun Devils (3-2) won Division 1 and received a pass to the final after a 16-1 win over the Trail Orioles (2-2) in a five-inning playoff Sunday. The Blaze beat the Coalminers 4-1 in the semifinal before knocking off the Sun Devils 6-1 to claim the championship.
