David couldn't slay Goliath on Friday at the 2013 under-13 triple-A Peewee provincial baseball tournament.
The top-seeded Cloverdale Spurs clinched first place in Pool A with an 11-8 win over the host (eighth seed) Prince George LTN Contracting Knights at Spruce City Stadium in afternoon action. The loss left the Knights with a 1-1 record and facing a must-win game in the evening draw against the Aldergrove Dodgers (0-2) in the tight battle for the second playoff spot in the pool.
Knights assistant coach Keith Hampe said he was happy with the effort his team gave after falling behind early against the Spurs.
"We gave them a good fight," said Hampe. "Our kids didn't give up. We were down five runs right off the hop and we battled back and battled back and they brought in their closer at the end to put us away."
It was 5-0 for the Spurs before the Knights even had a chance to bat. But the Knights put up two runs, from Ryan Hampe and Seth Lapre, in the bottom of the first inning to close the gap to 5-2.
Cloverdale restored their five-run advantage and led 7-2 after three innings, adding two more runs to take an insurmountable 9-2 lead to start the fifth inning.
Derek Best started on the mound for the Spurs and was relieved by Walter Dingwall with the score 7-2. Dingwall earned the win. After Dingwall gave up a pair of hits in the bottom of the seventh inning, he was relieved by Cam O'Dell. Knights player of the game Liam Campbell banged a two-run single off O'Dell with one out, but the Spurs closer was able to get the next two batters leaving Campbell stranded.
The Knights scored a pair of runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to close the gap, but allowed two runs in the top of the seventh inning. Hampe and Mikey Schwab scored for the Knights in the fifth inning, while Campbell and Tommy Kreitz made it 9-6 after six innings.
Campbell drove in Ajay Nickolet and Brevin Gervais in the seventh inning.
"Liam has had two strong games at the plate now," said Hampe. "He had a couple good weeks of batting practice coming into the tournament and he's be good in the field."
Seth Lapre had the Knights other run in the first inning and also took the loss on the pitcher's mound.
Hampe said the loss means both the Knights and Dodgers will be desperate for a win in Friday's night game at Spruce City Stadium. If the Knights win, the Dodgers would be eliminated, but if the Prince George boys falter it would put them in a deep hole needing a win and some help today.
"We know that Aldergrove saved their ace for us and we've got one of our best pitchers going, if we can hit like we hit Cloverdale pitching today we should be in for a good game," said Hampe.
He added the Dodgers' ace lefty is apparently one of the top peewee (age 11-12) hurlers in British Columbia, but they're opponents have struggled at the plate so far in the tournament.
"We'll be 2-1 if we win [Friday] and [today] we play Nanaimo, they're out of it, but Victoria will probably have two wins as well," said Hampe.
In Pool B, Vancouver Minor continued to surprise everyone, improving to 3-0 with a 14-10 win over the Chilliwack Cougars and then knocking off the second-seed Abbotsford Angels 9-3. Thursday, Vancouver beat third-seeded White Rock Tritons 18-17. Vancouver is guaranteed top spot in Pool B.
"Wow, that's a shocker," said Hampe. "I don't think anybody expected White Rock to be 0-2 at this point either."
Other games Friday had the Rutland (Kelowna) Rockies edging the Tritons 14-13 and the Victoria Red Eagles laying a beating on the Dodgers 24-5. Victoria beat the Nanaimo Pirates x-x to move to 2-1 and drop the Pirates to 0-2. In a battle of winless teams in Pool B, the Tritons topped the Cougars x-x. The Knights secured the first tiebreaker against the Red Eagles on Thursday with a 5-3 win, should the two teams wind up tied after the pool play ends.
Saturday games have the Dodgers vs. the Pirates, 9 a.m. at Spruce City Stadium. At noon, the Cougars vs. the Rockies at P.G. Minor and the Spurs vs. the Red Eagles at Spruce City and at 3 p.m. the Angels vs. Tritons at Spruce City and the Pirates vs. Knights at P.G. Minor. The final round-robin game has the Rockies battling Vancouver Minor, 6 p.m. at Spruce City.
The crossover semifinal games are Sunday, 10 a.m. with the gold-medal game at 2 p.m.
Knights games are being live streamed to the web at http://www.ballcharts.com/teams/index.php?team=PGpeeweeKnights.
