The Prince George Lomak Bulk Carriers bantam Knights are on a roll heading into their third tournament of the season this weekend.
They went 5-0 two weekends ago at the Okanagan Spring Classic double-A tournament in Kelowna despite not having a single practice at home outside the walls of a gymnasium.
"We can't do a whole lot indoors but we do as much as we can and worked hard and it's showing off," said Knights centre fielder Scotty Walker, prior to the Knights' first practice Saturday on the new grass at Rotary Park.
"We get along really good on this team, which helps a lot. We were losing at first in all our games [in Kelowna] but we never stopped and we always came back."
The Knights started the season winning two of four games at a triple-A tournament in April in Kamloops. Knights third baseman/pitcher Michael Taylor said the team is already developing great chemistry, a key to their success in Kelowna.
"We had hoped to win a couple games, not the whole thing, but we have a very talented group and we all hit well and played well," said Taylor.
As the lone North Central Interior team, the Knights will contend for the B.C. Minor Baseball under-15 provincial championship in Burnaby, July 30-Aug. 4. The Knights will also form the bulk of the Zone 8 team that will play in the B.C. Summer Games tournament in Nanaimo, July 17-20.
Cole Schwing, 14, who pitched five innings in the final in Kelowna, a 5-4 win over Chilliwack, is looking forward to the challenge of facing the province's best players born before the U-15 cutoff date, Dec. 31, 1999.
"We're going to be playing against teams we've never played against and we can beat them if we hit well and play good defence," said Schwing, the Knights' starting catcher. "We have to play as a group and we've been playing good together. It makes you happy when you win a tournament like that, it gets your name on the board. We can beat most of the teams down there if we play good."
Like all other outdoor sports teams in the city, the Knights had to wait until the first week of May to get on the fields and held regular indoor workouts through the winter taking ground balls and hitting in the batting cage on the upper floor of PGSS gym. With six first-year bantams joining six second-years, head coach Shane Taylor admitted his surprise at seeing that mix blend so well together in Kelowna.
"The whole weekend we focused on having fun, being relaxed and not worried about making errors because they're going to happen," said coach Taylor. "Our veterans were great leaders all weekend and out young kids came out and played great ball.
"We have six veterans and six coming up and we'll keep the same approach; we'll use our veterans first and our first years will work their way into our lineup. That keeps the veterans on their toes and our young kids trying hard."
An open tryout will be held on Sunday, May 25 to finalize the roster for the Summer Games team.
"It's the closest thing to the Premier League in the Lower Mainland -- it's going to be the best of Vancouver and the best of the Island and it will be a tough one for us, but I think we'll do OK," said Knights head coach Shane Taylor, who will also coach the Summer Games team.
The other second-year bantams are third baseman/pitcher Dustin Aldana, first baseman/pitcher Cole Beacom and Cole Gronskei of Quesnel.
The Knights will have two out-of-town players on a 12-player roster -- Gronskei and A.J. Nickolet of Mackenzie, who played for the Knights triple-A peewee team which hosted the provincial championship last year.
Coach Taylor was impressed with first-year pitcher/first baseman Liam Campbell and pitcher/shortstop Quinton Astorino at the Kelowna tournament.
The Knights will be Tsawwassen for the Grand Slam double-A tournament starting Friday.
