Knights ride for B.C. crown
The Southstar Equipment bantam Knights are taking their best crack at a provincial title this weekend in Richmond.
The boys baseball team is stepping up to the plate at the 15-and-under B.C. Baseball double-A championship.
And it's so far so good with an opening 22-5 win in five innings Friday afternoon against the Delta Tigers.
The Knights are in round-robin pool A with Abbotsford, Victoria, Vancouver Minor and Delta. Today they take on Abbotsford at 8:45 a.m. and Victoria at 2:45 p.m.
On Sunday, they wrap up with a noon tilt against Vancouver Minor.
Pool B features teams from Cloverdale, Rutland, Burnaby, Richmond and Tri-Cities.
The top two teams from each pool advance to a cross-over playoff round on Monday. The winners from those games will meet in the final at 2 p.m.
So far this season, the Knights have won the Big League Experience tournament in Kamloops, placed second in the Cloverdale Boulanger tournament and reached the semifinals in the Richmond Qualifier.
-- Citizen staff
Nickolet earns B.C. nod
Jayan Nickolet will suit up for B.C. in a couple of big baseball tournaments this month.
The 14-year-old from Mackenzie was named to the 14-player B.C. squad that will compete in Baseball Canada's 16-and-under girls invitational from Aug. 13-17 in Saguenay, Que.
Besides B.C., the 16U invitational includes two teams from Quebec and one each from Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Nickolet will then travel to Yorkton, Sask., and play for B.C.'s 14U girls squad at the Western Canada Baseball Association championships from Aug. 21-24.
So far this summer, she has teamed up with the female B.C. 16U Baseball Selects in single-A bantam tournaments in Surrey and Burnaby.
For the last two summer seasons, she was on the 13-14U B.C. Selects that competed at the Western Canadian championships.
-- Citizen staff
New mark for Esopenko
Hannah Esopenko set a new club record in the 50-metre breaststroke and claimed the gold medal at the 2015 Canadian Age Group Championships Wednesday in Quebec City.
The Prince George Barracudas swim club member touched the wall in 33.17 seconds to win the 15-year-old girls race. Her time was a new club record in the 15-17 girls division.
Nina Kucheran of Sudbury won the silver medal, clocking 33.37, while Renae LeDoux of Langley captured the bronze medal with a time of 33.43.
Esopenko also clocked 5:04.22 in the 400m individual medley to finish fourth, and was 21st in the 100m butterfly.
Once she returns from Quebec City, Esopenko will travel to Fort McMurray where she'll represent Team B.C. at the Western Canada Summer Games that begin Aug. 7.
-- Citizen staff
Renner keeps rolling at worlds
Three top-10 finishes against the best in the world is pretty good.
That's exactly what Linda Renner accomplished at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles this week in 10-pin bowling.
Competing for Team Canada, the Prince George Special Olympian rolled to a fifth-place finish in doubles and wound up sixth in singles play.
Those results go along with the silver medal she won as part of Canada 2 in team play on Tuesday.
-- Citizen staff
Vees sign Brodeur
The B.C. Hockey League champion Penticton Vees have signed goaltender Anthony Brodeur for the 2015-16 season.
Brodeur, a seventh-round pick of the New Jersey Devils in the 2013 NHL draft, joins the Vees after two seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with Drummondville and Gatineau.
Brodeur is the son of New Jersey Devils goaltending great Martin Brodeur.
The younger Brodeur will share duties between the pipes with returning netminder Brendan Barry.
The Prince George Spruce Kings host the Vees on Oct. 3 at the Coliseum and are in Penticton on Oct. 16.
-- Citizen staff
