The LTN Contracting bantam Knights punched their ticket to the B.C. Amateur Baseball Association U15 double-A provincial final.
Their thrilling 9-8 walkoff win over the Surrey-Newton Canadians in the West Division final Saturday afternoon in Burnaby sent the Knights into a winner-take-all playoff with the East Division-champion Vancouver Expos.
That game is set for 2 p.m. Sunday in Richmond. The winner will advance to the Babe Ruth regional tournament of champions, Aug. 10-12 in San Diego, Calif.
The Knights were trailing by a run heading into the bottom of the seventh inning when Leigh Peebles led off with double, followed by a Jacob Ross single, leaving Knights runners at first and third with nobody out. The Canadians' pitcher was charged with a balk and that brought Peebles in with the tying run, and Ross advanced to second.
Grady Goyer then hit a grounder to the opposite side of the field, allowing Ross to reach third base. With one out, Luka Kim hit a hard ground ball to the hole that was fielded by the Canadians shortstop, who made a wild throw to first base trying for the third out and the error allowed Ross to come home with the winner.
Prince George starter Noah Lank pitched five innings and left the game with the Knights leading 6-5. He gave up nine hits, had nine strikeouts and walked just one batter. Jacob Fillion took over in the sixth and got two outs when the Canadians launched a protest that Fillion had thrown more pitches than the rules allowed, but that was overturned. He gave up a home run to Daniel Johnson in the sixth to tie the game 7-7. In the seventh, Canadians Ethan Hein took an Adam Hart pitch over the wall to give Surrey-Newton the lead.
Zach Fillion had two hits in the game for the Knights.
"They're fired up," said Knights head coach Curtis Sawchuk. "Battling that controversy and being able to come back when you're down, you could easily fold but the kids showed so much fight. They believed every inning and believed they were going to win and they persevered. They stuck together as a family and picked each other up, It was a big team family win there and I couldn't be more proud of the guys."
Prince George started the day Saturday with a 7-3 semifinal win over the Tri-City Indians.
Ross came in to relieve Jacob Fillion and pitched four complete innings, allowing just three hits while striking out seven. He also swung a heavy bat. In the bottom of the fifth inning, with the Knights nursing a 4-3 lead, the six-foot-one Ross clubbed a three-run home run to give his team a comfortable four-run lead which they held the rest of the game.
Goyer homered in the second inning for a 2-0 Knights' lead and the Indians responded in the top of the third inning with three runs for a 4-3 lead. Logan Dreher's base hit in the bottom of the third tied it 3-3 and Kim answered with an RBI single in the fourth to put the Knights ahead.
