Mary Potskin called it from her spot on the scorekeeper's booth.
Well almost.
When she saw her son Evan holding a bat heading for the on-deck circle in the top of the seventh inning Sunday afternoon she predicted Evan would blast one over the Spruce City Stadium centrefield wall.
As it turned out, Evan's double off pitcher Rich Haldane bounced off the fence only a few feet short of home-run territory. But it gave T.J. Bones plenty of time to round the bases and score the winning run to lift Randy's A's of Invermere to a 5-4 decision over Spank's A's of Invermere, formed for the Potskin/Ghostkeeper Memorial fastball tournament as a split-squad offshoot of the Randy's A's traveling team.
"I I tried to drive a pitch the other way and got a good pitch to hit," said the 39-year-old Potskin.
"It was dipper away and I just went with it and hit it the other way. It was lucky I just hit the gap and lucky the guy made an error for [Bones] to get on. You need a break to win and that's what we got."
Called into service to play shortstop for Randy's squad, Potskin is one of three Prince George players who plan to join Randy's A's when they travel to Kitchener, Ont., in Aug. 9-17 for the ISC senior men's world fastball championship.
Randy's leaned on the right arm of pitcher Collin McKenzie, who obviously wasn't bothered pitching two games back-to-back with no rest. Spank's had the luxury of advancing to the final with a one-run win over Randy's in the A-final Saturday night and that gave pitcher Rich Haldane a half-day to recuperate. Randy's had to play an additional game late Sunday morning against Falcon Contracting Under-19 Team B.C. and hung on to beat them 2-1.
McKenzie, who gave up a three-run home run to Haldane which tied Sunday's game at 4 in the third inning, got himself into a bit of a jam facing the meat of Spank's order in the bottom of the seventh. He walked lead-off hitter Greg Scheffer and with one out pitched to Haldane rather than intentionally putting him on. That plan worked out for McKenzie when he forced Haldane into a routine ground-out. McKenzie then got Shane Minnibarriet to go down swinging for the final out.
"I was getting third there in the middle innings, I was having trouble landing with the holes out there and my legs were getting a little rubbery," said McKenzie. "I got a bit of second wind in the last two innings, just enough to switch to the drop ball and we got out of there.
"The pitch [Haldane] hit out was my mistake. We play each other lots in the [Kelowna] league so I wasn't shy to go right at him and make him earn it and we got the out."
The tournament gave the A's two split-squads plenty of playing time, which they'll need to get ready for the big tournaments they have coming up. They've loaded up with talent from three western provinces, adding players like longtime Prince George resident Cory Giroux, who now lives in Calgary. Giroux's double in the third inning, followed by a Brandon Creyke single, gave Randy's a brief lead.
Chad Ghostkeeper and Randy Potskin, who played for the Falcon U-19s on the weekend, are also part of the A's traveling squad. They'll be in Calgary July 3-5 for a six-team tournament that includes the New Zealand senior national team and also have dates booked with the A's in the native national championship in Prince Albert. Sask., Aug. 3-6.
"That'll be my sixth or seventh world's and it will be nice to have a good showing there," said Evan Potskin. "I've played in that twice in Kitchener. In '02 we finished fourth and in '07 we lost in the final."
Randy's is named after Randy Martin, who founded the team and ran it until died of a heart attack two years ago. His father Dean coaches the travel team and his brothers Hawk and Rich are still in active duty as players. Randy's finished second in the native nationals last year, after winning it in 2012. They'll try to secure a berth in the 2015 ISC world tournament when they play in the Challenge Cup in Vancouver, July 4-6.
McKenzie was picked as the tournament MVP. Other awards were handed to Haldane (top pitcher), Lindsay Whitehead of Spank's (top infielder), Chris Kinsey of Spank's (top outfielder), Josh Anderson of Falcon (top utility player) and Randy Potskin of Falcon (top coach).
