The Prince George Senior Men’s Baseball League playoffs are going down to the wire.
The regular season-champion Prince George Knights will meet the Prince George Plumbing & Heating Tigers Tuesday night at 7 at Citizen Field to decide who gets the trophy.
The Tigers extended the double-knockout playoffs Thursday night when they topped the Knights 16-7 to hand the under-18 provincial champions their first loss of the postseason after a pair of wins.
Cole Laviolette pitched the win for the Tigers and Angelo Desantis scored four runs.
“We were just riddled with errors,” said Knights head coach Jody Hannon. “I think we had seven or eight errors in that game.
The Knights were missing six starters from the team that captured the B.C. Minor Baseball Association U-18 crown a few weeks ago in Ridge Meadows. Luka Kim, Jacob Ross, Jacob Fillion and Logan Dreher have all left the city to attend postsecondary schools, and Dillon Neufeld has moved back to Fort St. John. They’re also without injured players James Yandeau and Brody LaFavor. None of those players will be available for Tuesday’s game. Adam Leslie has been called up from the bantam Knights team.
“We had one goal in mind this year and that was winning provincials and we won,” said Hannon. “Just being in the men’s league final for the first time, I don’t know if it’s ever happened, I’m quite thrilled with how everything’s gone this year.”
The U-18 Knights won the regular season title with a 9-3-0 record, just ahead of the second-place Tigers, who finished 8-3-1. The Knights opened the playoffs with a 5-4 win over the JRJ Orioles on Aug, 25 and beat the Queensway Auto World Mariners 5-4 on Aug 31.
The Tigers tuned up for their win over the Knights with a 7-4 victory over the Mariners on Wednesday.
