They showed they can compete.
With a couple of provincial tournaments on the horizon, that's good news for the Prince George bantam double-A Knights baseball team.
The Knights were in Kelowna last weekend and finished second in the Valley of the Champions tournament. After the first five innings of Sunday's final, they were in a 3-3 tie with the Ridge Meadows Royals but ended up losing 9-3 after starting pitcher Tom Kreitz reached his pitch-count limit of 95 and was forced to the dugout.
For the Knights, the games in Kelowna were their first this season against double-A competition.
"Considering it was really the first chance we've had to play teams that are the same level as us, we thought it went well," Knights assistant coach Russell Pratt said of the result. "We haven't won a lot of games this year because we've been playing against triple-A teams, because we couldn't find double-A tournaments to play in. So we didn't know how we would fare."
The Royals are currently the top double-A club in the Lower Mainland. After the final, their coaches had positive words to share with the Knights staff.
"They mentioned to us that we were probably the best team they'd played all year," Pratt said.
In the first game of the tournament, the Royals downed the Knights 8-2. After that, the Prince George boys reeled off three consecutive wins to finish pool play at 3-1. That mark qualified them for the playoff semifinal round and they hammered out a 15-1 victory against the Vernon Canadians. In the contest, Knights pitcher Brady Pratt tossed a complete-game two-hitter and Derian Potskin smashed a home run.
Timely hitting and quality pitching was the theme for the Knights all weekend.
"Our bats really came around for the first time this year," Russell Pratt said. "Right through the whole lineup we had kids hitting.
"And our top four pitchers all did really well this weekend and showed us our pitching is right there with everyone else's in the province."
At the plate, Kreitz also had a home run in the tournament. On the mound, the Knights got stellar performances from Richard French and Kolby Lukinchuk, who picked up back-to-back Saturday wins against the Central Okanagan Blues (7-6 and 11-2).
The Knights will be back in action this coming weekend in Burnaby, site of the B.C. Minor Baseball bantam double-A provincial championship. Coach Pratt knows they'll have to be at their best because they're in a pool with Ridge Meadows and highly-rated Ladner, as well as Cowichan Valley (No. 1 on Vancouver Island) and Vernon.
"We owe that Ridge Meadows team," he said. "They've beat us twice now, two good games, and we want to go turn the tables and take one from them."
After the B.C. Minor provincials, the Knights will also step to the plate in the Baseball B.C. provincial tournament on the August long weekend in Ridge Meadows.
Buck Schmidt is head coach of the Knights and his staff includes Brad Kreitz and Blake Miller.
Also at the Valley of the Champions tournament, the Lomak Knights reached the final in the midget double-A division but lost 5-0 to St. Albert. The Knights will host their provincial tournament Aug. 4-7 at Citizen Field and Rotary Park.
