The count was nearing the 95-pitch threshold when Prince George Jepson Petroleum Knights head coach Curtis Sawchuk asked the scorekeeper for confirmation.
Sawchuk just wanted to make sure Parker McBurnie was keeping it under 95 so he’d be available to the Knights to pitch in the BC Minor Baseball midget double-A championship playoffs.
It turned out McBurnie was at 88 and he needed just one more toss to strike out Kalon Casson and end Monday’s game against the North Langley Trappers.
The Knights beat the Trappers 13-1 in six innings to keep their perfect record intact at the 12-team tournament at Nechako Park and send the P.G. boys into the semifinal round today (8 a.m. start) against the Tri City Thunder.
McBurnie knows his team is now just two wins away from winning a championship on home soil and was relieved he lived up to his end of the bargain to get the Knights closer to their goal.
“The arm feels good, it felt to get the win and the Number 1 seed,” said McBurnie, after going for a post-game jog in the outfield. “The boys helped me out, though, by mercying them and getting some runs so I didn’t have to go seven (innings).
“We just had to see (Trappers starter Chase Mackie) first and get a couple swings and we wore him down a little bit. He has a nice hook but his fastball is flat and we were hitting that so he had to go throw that curve ball a lot.”
McBurnie allowed just four hits and collected five strikeouts for his complete-game victory. Hanging around the mound until the end was just what head coach Curtis Sawchuk wanted his 14-year-old chucker to do.
“He honestly did exactly what we asked him to, you can’t ask for much more, and I’m really proud of him,” said Sawchuk. “He kept our bullpen extremely strong for tomorrow. We knew this was a must-win to solidify that first spot. We didn’t want to face Cowichan in the semifinal, we went to face Cowichan in the final.”
The Cowichan Valley Mustangs finished 4-0 in the other pool and wrapped up
preliminary round play Monday with a 12-2 win over Cloverdale. Cowichan will face North Langley in the other semifinal (8 a.m.). The final is scheduled for 11:30 a.m.
The Trappers managed something no other team has done in the tournament. They held the Knights off the scoreboard in the first inning. Righthander Mackie sat the Knights down in order. He forced Chase Martin to fly out, left Preston Weightman looking at curve ball for a called third strike, then got Logan Dreher to ground out to first base.
The Trappers then struck first in their half of the first. With one out, McBurnie plunked Jackson Wood and the next batter, Isaiah Peters, brought in first run of the game with a single to centre field.
But that pretty much was all the damage the Trappers could cause and the Knights hitters started connecting, just like they have all weekend. Brenden Gaboury touched off the second inning with a base hit and advanced to third base when James Yandeau belted a double out to right field to tie the game. Caleb Poitras followed suit with a double and came in to score on a passed ball before Tyson Ramsay struck out to end the inning.
The Knights added one more in the third for a 4-1 lead and scored four in the third to pull away. McBurnie led off the fourth with a double and was driven in by Noah Lank’s two-bagger. Poitras was hit by a pitch and Tyson Ramsay followed up with a two-run double and Lucas Langevin also scored on an error to make it an 8-1 game.
“We had the first three batters strike out and the next inning we go and put three runs right in their face, it’s just staying with it, keeping our head in the game,” said McBurnie.
Gaboury drove in three runs in the sixth with a double and McBurnie finished with three hits in four at-bats.
Mackie had good velocity on his curveball, which surprised the Knights in the early going but couldn’t hold off their hitters. He gave up 10 hits and six earned runs in three innings.
“We started off really well, had all the momentum and it was tough,” said the 15-year-old Mackie. “They’ve got a lot of good hitters, one through 10, and they all hit the ball. Not too many big hitters, at least not what we saw today, but they’re all solid.
“I felt pretty good, I got squeezed a little bit on some of the calls but it went OK. Hopefully we can get another shot at them.”
The Trappers finished 2-2 in the preliminary round. Mackie played triple-A last year for North Langley, losing in the semifinal to the eventual champions, and he says the Knights would likely to do well at that level.
“I think they’ve been in a couple triple-A tournaments and have been in the finals in those and I think they should be up there, but it’s solid competition for us,” said Mackie.
The Knights and Thunder have played each other three times this year and the Knights have won all three. Sawchuk said Lank, who already has two wins in the tournament, will get the start against Tri City, which leaves Poitras available is the likely starter if Prince George advances to the final.
In the four games, the Knights outscored their opponents a combined 62-11.
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