The PPWC Knights had only played three games before they took to the diamond at the Valley of Champions baseball tournament in Kelowna. Relative inexperience didn't keep them from coming home with a medal.
The Knights, a peewee single-A all-star team from the Prince George Youth Baseball Association, played for gold last Sunday but fell 8-4 to Abbotsford.
"It was a really good game," said Mike McLachlan, manager of the Under-13 club, which is also sponsored by the Prince George Cougars. "The pitching on both sides was really good. Our starting pitcher (Caleb Heggelund) went six complete innings within his 85 pitch count so we were really happy with that. We had one inning where we kind of fell apart and they scored the five-run maximum. We had a few errors that kind of led to that one, and I think a lot of that was just nerves with the kids."
The other games for the Knights were at a tournament in Surrey earlier this season.
In Kelowna, they finished with a 4-1 record, all of the wins by lopsided scores. They started with a 15-4 victory against Sherwood Park, downed Surrey 10-3, pounded out a 17-5 win against Summerland and then defeated the host COMBA team 11-2 (complete game by pitcher Braeden McLachlan) to get to the final.
"The boys did a good job hitting," Mike McLachlan said. "It was a bit of a breakout. The previous tournament was actually a double-A tournament we signed up in, even though we're a single-A team.
"So we saw a lot of good pitching and then leading into this single-A tournament I think it was a bit of a relief for the boys. It wasn't the level they had been trying to get used to so it was a bit of a breakout in that way."
The Knights' roster includes Kaiden Feniuk, Terrell Goldsmith, Lucas Kelly, Brody LaFavor, Lucas Langevin, Nik Leslie, Dillon Matvichuk, Easton Skutelnik, Troy Todoruk and Riley Zummack. Mike McLachlan's coaching staff is rounded out by Richard Matvichuk and Chad Zummack.
Richard Matvichuk, head coach of the WHL's Prince George Cougars, has been a great asset to the ball club, McLachlan said.
"He's obviously an experienced coach and knows how to handle the boys. It's been extremely valuable to have him with us."
The Knights will now focus on getting ready for their provincial championship tournament, Aug. 3-6 in Cloverdale.
In other results from the Valley of Champions tournament, the mosquito single-A Knights went 1-4, the mosquito triple-A club posted a 2-2 record, the peewee triple-A squad finished at 2-3-1, the bantam double-A Knights were a perfect 6-0 and won gold (story was in Thursday's Citizen) and the midget team ended at 3-1-1.
