They got the pitching, they got the hitting. For good measure, the IDL Knights threw in some sparkling defence.
With all those elements working in their favour, the Knights picked up an easy victory Thursday afternoon at Citizen Field in their first game of the BC Minor Baseball Midget AA provincial tournament. The local all-stars beat a much weaker Cloverdale Spurs team 12-1 in a contest cut to five innings by the mercy rule.
In the victory, starting pitcher Reg Barry worked the first three innings for the host team and didn't allow a single hit. Cole Waldie was on the mound for the last two innings and had the no-hitter broken in the bottom of the fifth when Cloverdale's Matt Theilmann golfed a ball back up the middle of the diamond. Ben Linares of the Spurs also connected for a hit, which scored Theilmann. But that was all the damage Cloverdale was able to inflict against Prince George's dominant arms.
"Everything was working well," the 18-year-old Barry said of his performance. "The fastball, I could power up on today and my curveball was falling right down in the zone perfectly. My change-up whiffed a few guys, which was pretty nice."
Offensively, the Knights rapped out 14 hits. After two runs in the first inning, they erupted for seven in the second and scored three more in the third. In the second inning, they took advantage of six hits and some Cloverdale miscues to assume control of the game.
Barry, Brandon Graham, Mark Mosure and Jordan Patterson all finished with two hits.
Defensively, the 17-year-old Patterson was also an impact player. He fielded a string of ground balls at shortstop and, like he was on automatic pilot, gunned runners down at first base all game long. Catcher Cole Laviolette also showcased his defensive abilities in the bottom of the fourth inning when he picked up an overthrow near the first-base dugout and easily threw out a Cloverdale runner who was trying for second.
Patterson was rightfully pleased with the team's performance.
"The pitching went well -- lots of ground balls, which is what we need," he said. "We're not trying to strike guys out. We're just trying to put the ball in play and let our defence do the work. And we were on the bats too, so that's how it worked out."
