A late-inning rally by the Prince George Lomak Bulk Carrier bantam Knights led to an 11-10 win over Rutland and a third-place finish at the Grand Slam double-A baseball tournament in Tsawwassen on Monday.
The Knights trailed the Kelowna squad 10-9 in the bottom of the seventh inning when their bats came through at the plate.
Matt Schwab led off with a single, then stole second base. Matt Seemann followed with an RBI double into the gap that brought Schwab home and tied the game. Next, Ryan Hampe stepped up and slapped an RBI walk-off single and Seemann scored the winning run to give Prince George third-place in the 12-team tournament.
"It's great to have all our first-year players play so well," said Knights co-coach Shane Taylor. "They stepped up and showed their abilities. The team showed a lot of character and came back to win when it needed to."
After a long travel day to the Lower Mainland Friday night, the Knights suffered an 8-4 loss to top-seeded Delta Grove bright and early Saturday morning.
Prince George bounced back with a 10-0 shutout against Ladner and followed that up with a 15-1 victory against Victoria Sunday morning.
In the Knights' final round-robin game against Cowichan Valley Sunday afternoon, the teams were tied 6-6 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, thanks to a stellar pitching effort by A.J. Nickolet for the Knights.
"We were getting great pitching from A.J. and he had struck out their No. 4 hitter twice already," said Taylor. "I made a mistake and left [A.J.] in and they had runners on first and second and the kid [Cowichan's No. 4 hitter] hit a three-run home run and we lost the game 9-6."
The Knights' 2-2 round-robin record put them in the playoff round and a match-up against Rutland.
"We had great pitching from A.J., Liam Campbell and Quinton Astorino. Against Rutland, Quinton shut them down in the final two and one thirds innings and allowed no runs," said Taylor.
The Knights will form the bulk of the Zone 8 baseball team that will compete at the B.C. Summer Games in Nanaimo, July 17-20. An open tryout will be held this Sunday to finalize the roster.
The Knights next hit the bases for a tournament May 30 to June 1 in Mission.
