The Prince George Lomak midget Knights are heading for a tiebreaker at the Baseball BC double-A midget (18U) provincial championship.
The Knights will take on the Campbell River Tyees Sunday at 9 a.m. to Citizen Field in a single-game playoff to determine second place in the B Pool at the 10-team tournament.
The winner advances to the semifinals against the undefeated (4-0) Tsawwassen Dodgers.
The Knights forced the extra game Saturday night at Citizen Field when they hammered the Mission Twins 14-2 in six innings behind the one-hit pitching of Ajay Nickolet. Nickolet went four innings without allowing a run and left the game with the Knights ahead 10-0.
The Knights jumped all over Twins starter Caelan Sampson and took advantage of couple of errors to score seven runs in the first inning. With Riley Myles in to replace Sampson, Nickolet connected in the third inning with a double off the centrefield wall to score Dustin Aldana, the second hit of the game for the 16-year-old from Mackenzie. Nickolet's single in the first inning brought in two runs.
"I struggled early this season but I think I'm finally finding my form at the plate and in the field, so it feels good," said Nickolet. "Hitting makes everything earlier on the field and in the dugout, it's just so nice knowing we can go up and score runs and get ahead."
Nickolet left the game having thrown 43 pitches, which makes him available to go back on the mound in the semifinal, if the Knights make it that far. The Knights lost 7-3 loss to Campbell River on the opening day of the tournament Thursday - their only loss as they finished the round robin with a 3-1 record.
Saturday's game was similar to the Knights' 13-3 win over the Newton Giants, which also ended in a mercy-rule decision after six innings.
"We finally played up to expectations and hit the ball like we normally do," said Nickolet. "We didn't play our best then (in the loss to the Tyees) but I think we're playing our best baseball now and we're going to get revenge on them. I think we're going to go all the way."
Knights catcher Cole Schwing had a productive night at the plate; he singled in the first run of the game in the first inning, then belted a Myles pitch over the centrefield wall in the fifth inning, a three-run shot which made it a 13-2 game. Matt Knight came home later in the inning with the final run of the game after an errant throw to third base from catcher Jeremy Williams.
The Dodgers finished off their schedule Saturday morning with a 9-6 decision over the White Rock Bears, the only team to go undefeated in the round robin tournament. With three teams (Ladner, Prince George and Campbell River) in Pool B finishing with 3-1 records, the Red Sox claimed first place and a crossover semifinal matchup with the Vancouver Expos because they had a better run differential than that of the Knights and Tyees.
Both semifinals will be played at 1 p.m. Sunday
The final is set for 4 p.m. at Citizen Field.
BC Baseball midget double-A championship
Final round-robin standings
Pool A
W L
Tsawwassen 4 0
Vancouver 3 1
White Rock 2 2
Ridge Meadows1 3
Kamloops 0 4
Pool B
Ladner 3 1
Prince George 3 1
Campbell River 3 1
Mission 1 3
Newton 0 4
Saturday's results
Tsawwassen 9 White Rock 6
Ladner 12 Mission 2
Vancouver 10 Kamloops 6
Campbell River 11 Newton 1
Ridge Meadows 17 White Rock 16
Prince George 14 Mission 2
Sunday's schedule
Tiebreaker playoff
Prince George vs. Campbell River, 9 a.m., Citizen Field
Semifinals
Tsawwassen vs. Prince George-Campbell River winner, 1 p.m., Citizen Field
Ladner vs. Vancouver, 1 p.m., Rotary Field
Final
Semifinal winners, 4 p.m., Citizen Field
