In their division, the Lomak Midget Knights are the best team in the province. If proof was required, they provided it this past weekend in Port Moody, where they won the Baseball B.C. 18-and-under double-A championship.
In the four-team tournament, the Knights went 3-0 in round robin, which earned them a bye into Sunday's final. In that game, they got a gem of a pitching performance from 18-year-old Cole Schwing and blanked New Westminster 4-0.
The title was the second in two weekends for the Knights, who were coming off a championship performance at the B.C. Minor Baseball provincials in Ridge Meadows. Differences of opinion resulted in the formation of the two distinct associations a few years ago.
By winning the Baseball B.C. crown, the Knights qualified for the Western Canadian Championship, which starts Aug. 18 in Kamloops.
In the shutout victory against New Westminster, Schwing was masterful, just as he was in the previous weekend's final against Ladner, a game won 10-0 by the Knights.
"He didn't give up an earned run in a complete-game shutout (in the Ladner game) so we figured we'd go with him again and, sure enough, he goes out and he does his thing - he just dominates, doesn't give up a run," said Knights assistant coach Dylan Lukinchuk. "I think he gave up four hits in the final game and it was just spectacular.
"He was just blowing it by them," Lukinchuk added. "They were a team that loved to swing and that was perfect because they couldn't catch up to him."
Lukinchuk said Schwing tossed some "next-level" pitches, one of which was an 80-mile-per-hour fastball. To keep hitters guessing, he effectively mixed in a change-up and a curve ball.
On offence, Prince George put up two runs in the bottom of the second inning and two more in the third. Schwing was at bat in the second when the Knights scored on a passed ball and then he knocked in a run on a sacrifice fly to right-centre field. Meanwhile, Dustin Aldana went 3-for-3 (all singles) and finished with a run and an RBI. A run-scoring single also came off the bat of Quinten Astorino.
In their round-robin games, the Knights beat Tri City 2-0, downed New Westminster 7-6 in an extra inning and doubled the Kamloops Riverdogs 8-4.
In the extra-inning victory, New West tied the score 4-4 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh. Then, with the bases loaded and the winning run standing on third base, Schwing - who was catching for Joseph JenVenne - threw a laser down the line and picked off the New Westminster runner for the final out.
In the extra inning, both teams started with runners on first and second. In the top half, the Knights - keyed by a gutsy third-strike bunt by leadoff hitter JenVenne that loaded the bases - scored twice. New Westminster responded with two runs but got no closer.
"We got out of a jam," Lukinchuk said. "They put us in a sticky situation again."
According to Lukinchuk, the Knights are the first team to win the Baseball B.C. and B.C. Minor Baseball provincials in the same year.
The Knights will now start preparing for Westerns, which will feature the host Riverdogs as well as champions from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Qualifying for the tournament has been a season-long goal for the Prince George boys and Lukinchuk likes their chances for success.
"I think we're going to fare pretty well," he said. "This is probably one of the better Knights teams to be put together in quite some time. We have a lot of good, veteran presence on the team with five third-year players, and our rookies have really gotten an understanding of what it's like to play on this team. We've really made a name for ourselves - I think we've won four of the last six provincials so it's not just another all-star team that you move up to and you play out your season. We're in it for competitiveness and we're in it to win it."
Also at the Baseball B.C. provincials, the 15-and-under double-A Knights played to a 3-2 record. They opened with a 3-1 loss to Delta, beat Vancouver 4-0, dumped North Langley 12-2, downed Ridge Meadows 3-0 and, in the playoff semifinal round, fell 12-1 to Burnaby.
