The Pacific Western Helicopters Knights showed flashes of how good they can be. At other times, they struggled with some baseball basics.
At the Valley of Champions tournament in Kelowna on the weekend, the 13- and 14-year-old Knights compiled a 1-3 record and missed the playoff round. The all-star team from the Prince George Youth Baseball Association lost three in a row -- 6-4 to Vancouver, 26-8 to the Okanagan Tigers and 7-6 to Surrey -- but ended on a positive note with a 15-4 win against West Kelowna.
The Knights are classed as a single-A team and were competing against double-A clubs.
"We had some good games on the weekend and then we didn't play so great," said manager Gary Allbee. "I think honestly we could have been 3-1 in that round robin. We were up 4-1 in the game against Vancouver. It was a couple of little bloop hits and then a couple of errors and then we were behind. And then the 7-6 [loss to Surrey], we were down 6-0 after an inning and a third so that one, we came back well. I was trying some different pitchers as well, trying to get some guys some innings who hadn't pitched much yet."
Against West Kelowna, Knights chuckers Keiran Leboe and Myles Kazakoff kept the basepaths relatively quiet. Offensively, Bryan Allbee bashed a three-run home run and Bailey Mcfaul hit a two-run dinger.
In fact, the Knights demonstrated impressive power throughout the tournament. In the four games, they connected for seven home runs, including a grand slam by Dakota Curry in the loss to the Tigers.
"We do have good power on this team," Gary Allbee said. "It's a nice luxury, for sure."
On Tuesday night at Rotary Field, the Knights faced Quesnel in the first two games of a best-of-three qualifying series for provincials. See Thursday's Citizen for details.
The provincial tournament is Aug. 2-6 in Kamloops.
n The IDL Knights, who will host the midget double-A provincial championship later this month, were the class of their division at the Valley of Champions tournament.
The Knights won four of the five games they played, including the championship final. With the title on the line, they hammered out a 21-5 victory against Lacombe, a team that had beaten them 5-4 earlier in the tournament. In the one that counted, Prince George's Brennen Bredo hit a grand slam home run and the Knights walked off the field after five innings with a mercy-rule win.
In the semifinal round, the Knights beat Chilliwack 15-0, also in five innings. In their other games, they defeated Vernon 9-4 and downed Abbotsford 12-8.
The provincial tournament is July 26-30 at Citizen Field. Twelve teams will battle for the BC banner and the right to attend the Western Canadian championship in Morden, Man., Aug. 16-20. Morden is located southwest of Winnipeg.
