The Prince George Grays will play into Sunday after a 14-0 thrashing over the Nanaimo Cardinals on Saturday at Citizen Field.
Prince George jumped out to a 4-0 lead against the Cardinals at the end of the first inning thanks to a series of bases loaded walks and defensive errors by Liam Goodall and others.
After an uneventful second inning, the Grays exploded for 10 more runs in the bottom of the third, which was capped off by a three-run home run by second baseman Justin Fillion.
He says it was important to put themselves in a good position heading into the final day of the tournament. “A game like this is huge for us,” says Fillion. “Coming into the weekend we had high expectations for ourselves and we had a couple of games where we just fell short but with the way we came out tonight and put up 14 runs is a
pretty big thing for us. Hopefully tomorrow we can carry it on and keep the bats alive and go from there.”
The Grays finished the Western Canadian Senior Men’s Baseball round robin with a 1-2 record after losing 12-2 to the Saskatoon Outlaws earlier in the day.
Prince George plays the Southwest All-Stars from Manitoba at 10 o’clock Sunday morning from Citizen Field.
The Grays fell to them on Friday by a 6-5 score and Fillion is happy to get another crack at them. “They’ve got a good and they have some guys that can hit the ball. I think we gave them that last one so we definitely owe them – that’s for sure.”
The Outlaws defeated the Manitoba-based club 2-1 in the 1 vs 2 game to advance to tomorrow’s final.
Fillion adds both teams from the prairies aren’t catching them by surprise. “We played the Saskatchewan team (Saskatoon) at Western’s last year and they are a good team with a lot of good bats. They’re always in ball games and they just work hard but if we keep the ball down on them we will be alright.”
Tyrus Jocko and Chris Clark pitched a combined no-hitter for the Grays against Nanaimo.
Cole Waldie got the start at catcher over regular backstopped Cole Laviolette due to his familiarity with Jocko behind the plate.
“It helps a lot when you are catching for your pitcher since you donèt have to mix up your pitches as much and it just makes him and everybody else more comfortable. Ty is an unreal kid and pitcher and he threw a great game.”
The Cardinals were the only team to go winless (0-4) in the four-team tournament.
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The BC champion Prince George Lomak Midget Knights are 2-and-1 at the 5-team Western Canada Baseball
18-and-under AA championship in Kamloops.
The Knights blanked Manitoba 2-0 Saturday and will continue round robin action (Sunday at noon)
against Alberta.
If Prince George can win that game they would advance to the final against Saskatchewan.