The Prince George bantam double-A Knights may have suffered a 1-3 record at the Sussex baseball tournament in Kamloops on the weekend, but that may help them in the long run.
The Lomak Bulk Carrier Knights suffered lost three-straight games against double-A Aldergrove, and triple-A Victoria and Sherwood Park, but regained their form with a 14-3 clobbering of host Kamloops in five innings in their last game.
"Every single game they got a little better," said Knights co-head coach Shane Taylor. "It's good to go through a little adversity. We haven't had to go through any during the early part of the season. The last game versus Kamloops felt most like our team."
Prior to their below-.500 record at the triple-A tourney in Kamloops, the Knights have scored tournament wins in Mission and Kelowna so far this season, as well as a third-place finish in Tsawwassen.
Taylor says only a few practices together as a team in the last couple of weeks led to the Knights demise in Kamloops, but they'll be picking it up a notch with three to four practices per week leading up to the Valley of Champions tournament in Kelowna from July 11 to 13.
Four Knights players - Scott Walters, Cole Schwing, Michael Schwab and Michael Taylor - have advanced to the next round of the PNC Prospects Camp (Team B.C.). They'll go to Whalley (Surrey) July 8 - 10 to try out for the provincial under-15 squad.
"It's very exciting for them, it's the most number of players who've represented Prince George," said coach Taylor.
The majority of the bantam Knights will compete as the Zone 8 team at the B.C. Summer Games July 17-20 in Nanaimo.
The Prince George Total Tops double-A midget squad has posted a 3-0 record so far at a tournament in Newton (Surrey).
They beat Aldergrove 5-4 in a come-from-behind win in the eighth inning Saturday, and followed that up with a 2-1 victory over Whalley Sunday night in a game that was called after six innings due to darkness.
They then beat Newton 13-6 Monday morning and played in the tournament semifinal Tuesday morning. If they won, they advanced to the final.
Results were unavailable at Citizen deadlines.
