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Knights' bats wake up just in time

Troy Waldie called it a gray hair day to be a baseball manager. That's what it was like for him waiting for the Total Tops midget Knights to break out of their funk Thursday at the B.C. midget provincial championship in Mission.

Troy Waldie called it a gray hair day to be a baseball manager.

That's what it was like for him waiting for the Total Tops midget Knights to break out of their funk Thursday at the B.C. midget provincial championship in Mission.

Down 5-1 to the Tsawwassen Athletics in the fifth inning in their opening game of the tournament, the Knights took advantage of some shaky pitching to score three runs in the fifth inning and four more in the sixth to win 8-5.

"It was just a character win for the boys," said Waldie. "It was their first game and everyone's watching us [as two-time defending champions] and to come back like that, it was impressive. It was easily the most adversity they've faced in a tournament this year."

Bryan Allbee, who lasted until the second inning as the Knights' starting pitcher, delivered a clutch single in the sixth to score Bailey Macfaul and Myles Kazakoff, which put the Knights ahead 6-5. Pitcher Tyrus Jocko came on in the fifth to relieve his brother Brendyn and the 18-year-old ace was lights-out mowing down the Athletics' batting order.

Tyrus Jocko was the Knights' player of the game and came up with a pair of defensive gems. With the Athletics ahead 5-4, they threatened to pad their lead in the top of the fourth with runners at first and third base. The runner at first tried to steal second and Jocko ended up throwing out the other A's baserunner who tried to steal home. Then in the fifth inning, with one out, he faked a throw to first base and instead threw out the runner out at third.

A's pitchers got themselves in trouble in the late innings, walking a series of Knights batters, and Prince George scored three of its runs as a result of free passes. Cole Waldie got the offence started in the fifth with a bunt single to score a run and the Knights scored two more that inning on infield hits.

"Tsawwassen's pitching kind of imploded," said Troy Waldie. "Once we started scoring some runs we started looking like ourselves again and shut them down. For us to get eight runs and not hit anything solid, I don't know if that's a good sign or a bad sign."

In the late game Thursday night, the Knights took on the Cloverdale Spurs. They'll play Ladner today at 1 p.m., followed by the skills contest.