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 in their first game of the BC Minor Baseball Midget AA provincial tournament. Thursday afternoon at Citizen Field, 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.
"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.
Tonight (7 p.m., Citizen Field), the Knights will take on Vancouver.
On Friday, see The Citizen and pgcitizen.ca for more coverage.
