The Ladner Red Sox can take solace in the fact they are one of the few midget baseball teams to have beaten the Prince George Jepson Petroleum Knights this year.
That happened a few weeks ago at the Valley of Champions tournament in Kelowna but it was a much different story when the teams gathered for a rematch Sunday afternoon at Nechako Park at the BC Minor Baseball provincial midget double-A championship.
The Knights were ready for the Red Sox this team and pounded them 17-1.
Noah Lank picked up his second win in the 12-team tournament, allowing just two hits in three complete scoreless innings with four strikeouts to help the Knights improve to 3-0 atop their pool.
Lank, Chase Martin, and Parker McBurnie each contributed three hits in four innings. McBurnie drove in four runs, including a two-run home run in the second inning off starter Logan Lechner which made it 9-0. Lank tripled in the first inning to score two runs and put the Knights ahead 5-0.
Tyson Ramsay also homered, in the fourth inning, with Caleb Poitras already on base after he was walked by Red Sox reliever Layne Edge.
“The bats are just hot, everyone is handing the baton off, feeding off each other,” said McBurnie, whose long homer cleared the centrefield fence by at least 30 metres.
“Our mental focus was different, we weren’t in it in the other tournament. This game we came prepared. We really wanted to beat these guys.”
Knights third baseman Logan Dreher, 15, drove in three runs on two hits in four plate appearances and came up with the defensive play of the game when he stuck up his glove to catch a foul ball while falling backwards. That extraordinary effort ended the Red Sox half of the fourth inning with Edge in the batter’s box.
“It’s just our mentality, we knew we have to beat them and we knew we have to get on the sticks early, and our pitching has just been lights-out,” said Dreher. “It’s fun beating these teams by a lot.
“We just had better pitching (than they did in their loss to Ladner). Last time we weren’t on the sticks but this time we knew what we had to do and we did it. It’s just fun getting on the field in front of your home crowd.”
James Yandeau and Preston Weightman each offered an inning of relief for the Knights, who have outscored their opponents 48-10 through three games. The Knights opened Thursday with a 7-3 win over the Vancouver Expos, then beat the Burnaby Braves 24-6 on Saturday.
“They have a solid lineup top to bottom and it seemed every hit they had today had eyes and was just finding an open spot on the field,” said Red Sox head coach Steve Chong. “We were lucky eight to beat them in Kelowna when Lank started the game. But today he got the better of us.”
Prince George will wrap up preliminary-round play in the rain-shortened tournament Monday at 3:15 p.m. against the North Langley Trappers. The Knights have no intention of letting off the gas pedal.
“I’ve never been more proud of them,” said Knights head coach Curtis Sawchuk. “We’re all pulling for the same goal, we want to win that championship and it shows. You can see it in their performance and how the kids are carrying themselves, their attitude on the bench. It’s a really tight-knit family right now and it shows on the baseball field.”
Thundershowers Saturday forced more postponements and tournament volunteer worked all night trying to dry the field, as they did Friday night and early Saturday morning. Tournament organizers each shortened the schedule so that each team will play four games instead of the five each team had on the original schedule.
“The weather certainly hasn’t been optimal,” said Chong. “What was impressive was being out here at 9 o’clock and the grounds crew was out working with the torches and shovels trying to get it game-ready, and the sky opened up again. All I could feel was heartache for the grounds crew. Hats off to them.”
The Cowichan Valley Mustangs lead Pool A and improved to 3-0 after beating North Shore Blue 10-4 Sunday morning.
The top two teams in each pool meet in the semifinals Tuesday morning, with the final to follow either late morning or early afternoon on Tuesday. The time of those games has yet to be confirmed.
Other scores Sunday were: North Langley 10 Vancouver Expos 4; Vancouver Vipers 6 Cloverdale 4; Cloverdale 7 Tri City 7; Layritz 5 Burnaby 3; Tri-City 17 North Shore 11.
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