The Williams Lake Prospects were short of players and needed to expand their horizons in order to compete for the under-14 boys provincial fastball championship.
In Prince George, they found Brayden Rentz and Branden Edwards and also had to go beyond their established boundaries to snag Mason Richey from Terrace.
Playing in the eight-team U-14 provincial A-B championship in Surrey, the Prospects got off to a rough start in the round-robin tournament, but turned it on when it counted. After upsetting Sooke 15-5 in the semifinal, the Prospects hung on to beat 100 Mile House 15-14 in Sunday's final.
Edwards and Rentz each played prominent roles in the championship game. Edwards hit 4-for-5 with a first-inning home run and three more RBI while Rentz went 3-for-5 and drove in three runs. Richie was also a monster holding the bat, with two home runs, four hits and seven RBI in five trips to the plate.
Made up of eight players from Williams Lake, the team formed for the first time in June and had just two exhibition games (a pair of wins over 100 Mile House) to prepare for the provincial playoffs.
"It was a Cinderella story, we were supposed to go in the C provincials but they wouldn't let us," said Prospects manager Brad Anderson. "Because we picked up a player from Terrace, which isn't in our district, they made us go up to B. We had five kids who had never played ball before but they're all athletic kids."
In the final, Williams Lake scored five runs in the first inning and built a 10-3 lead after three innings. However, the pitching shoulder of Matthew Samson started to get sore and 100 Mile House made it close. Richie came on in relief and after two innings of rest Samson came back to finish the game.
"We had a lot of speed - Brayden and Branden are very fast on the bases so every time they were on base they stole," said Anderson, who is originally from Prince George. "[Catcher] Brett Alexander kept their runners from getting into scoring position and that was a key for us too.
"Branden and Brayden were swinging the bat fairly well so I was getting them to hit. The kids who had never played before, I was getting them to bunt and they were getting on base almost every time."
100 Mile House, which defeated Williams Lake 19-4 early in the tournament, was favoured to win in the playoff round after going undefeated in round-robin play.
"That 100 Mile team has been together since they were five and six years old and they'd already won two tournaments. They thought for sure they were going to win," said Anderson.
The Prospects could have advanced to the Western Canadian bantam championship, Aug. 1-4 in Lloydminster, Alta., but didn't submit an eligibility form before the June deadline.
