Tre Potskin wants that championship feeling back again.
In May 2013 he helped B.C. win a Canadian title at the national aboriginal hockey championship in Kahnawake, Que. Now he's in Regina playing for Team B.C. at the under-19 softball tournament at the North American Indigenous Games and with his team heading for the medal round, a shot at the gold is once again within his grasp.
"I think we can win this with our hitting right now," said the 19-year-old Potskin, who went 3-for-4 with two doubles and a single in a 13-9 win over Manitoba Wednesday morning. "If Josh [B.C. pitcher Anderson] stays healthy and keeps pitching the way he has been we have chance, for sure."
Through two games and nine plate appearances, Potskin had six hits. He hit a home run in B.C's opening game Wednesday, a 13-7 win over Alberta and had another round-tripper in the fourth inning called back in the Manitoba game when umpires ruled the ball carried foul. Team B.C. co-coach Chad Ghostkeeper thought otherwise.
"They called it foul but it wasn't," said Ghostkeeper.
Potskin's cousin Theo has also been clubbing the ball well, with six hits in eight trips to the plate in the first two games. Theo knocked in three runs Wednesday morning, while Shelby Tom also had three hits against Manitoba.
The pitching arm of Anderson has carried B.C. so far. Anderson, who lives in Vancouver, will be counted on to carry most of the pitching workload, with backup support from Trent Seymour of Prince George.
"I don't think Josh has thrown his best yet, I know he can bring it better, but other than that we're getting the offence and the defence to get the wins," said Ghostkeeper. "In fastball you can pitch until your arm falls off. It's a bit different for the kids, you have to pitch with two feet on the rubber and he's been fine with that."
Anderson has the confidence of his team behind him. All but three of the 11 players are from Prince George.
"I think we have the best pitcher here and that helps us a lot," said Tre Potskin. "Hitting-wise, every team is pretty good all the way through their lineup. I've played with most of these guys all my life so we're pretty close. It's easy to gel with guys like that."
B.C. faced Nova Scotia in the afternoon game Thursday.
More than 4,500 athletes, including 800 from B.C., are in Regina to compete in the Games, which have been held every four years since 1990.
"It's just a cool event to come to, it's a great atmosphere and everyone's positive," said Tre Potskin. "We watched B.C. win gold in U-19 basketball [an 88-71 win over Wisconsin in the final Wednesday night]."
In other softball results, the B.C. under-19 girls ran their record to 3-0 Thursday afternoon with a 17-0 whitewash of Nova Scotia.
B.C. defeated Wisconsin 16-12 and doubled Saskatchewan 8-4 on the opening day of the eight-team tournament Wednesday. The B.C. team includes Sydney Caplette and Tanelle Smith of Prince George. Smith and Caplette each scored runs in a seven-run seventh inning to help B.C. erase a 4-1 deficit.
B.C. finished first in the Green Pool and will play Ontario in a semifinal game today at 8 a.m. PDT. The gold-medal final will be played Saturday morning.
