B.C.’s baseball crown belongs once again to the Prince George Surg Med Midget Knights.
Down in the lower mainland, the 18U AAs cruised their way to a third consecutive Baseball B.C. Provincial Championship (2017, 2018, 2019) by defeating host-Burnaby Braves 7-1 in the gold medal game.
The 6-0 undefeated weekend means the Knights will once again represent B.C. in the Western Canadian Championships, this time in Strathmore, Alta., and will look to maintain its regional rule as the defending champions.
Kolby Lukinchuk earned the win in the provincial pennant-clincher on Sunday afternoon (Aug. 11); he also started in his team’s third round-robin game on Friday evening (Aug. 9).
Prince George played the New West-Queens Park Royals twice in the tournament to get to the final, including the semis in which they ran away with an 11-1 score in a one-hitter performance from Jacob Ross on the mound.
Earlier in the weekend, their group stage game was postponed due to darkness with the Midget Knights leading 11-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning with two out.
The Baseball B.C. committee rescheduled the remainder of the contest for Saturday (Aug. 10), in which Prince George added four more runs to their score to finish first in their pool.
Overall, the local club outscored their opponents 72-33 en route to capturing its third straight blue banner.
The preliminary results are as follows:
- 14-13 win over Tri-City Thunder
- Walk-off victory saw Jacob Ross throw seven straight strikeouts in relief
- 12-11 win over Vancouver Expos
- 13-3 win over Ladner Red Sox
- Game included a three-run homer by Kaelon Gibbs
- 15-4 win over New West-Queens Park Royals
The Knights will face off against the Unity Cardinals (Sask.), Altona Bisons (Man.), Strathmore Reds (host), and Leduc Giants (Alta.) at the Western Championships from Aug. 16 to 18.
A second banner was also won this weekend by a Prince George baseball program.
The Peewee 13U A Knights claimed the 2019 B.C. Minor Baseball East Division pennant in Mission, defeating the Penticton Tigers by a score of 7-3 in the final.
They went 4-2 on the weekend, winning three straight games to grab the gold medal, and became the third local minor program this year to capture the same title.
The Prince George Bantam Knights, on the other hand, nearly saw deja vu during their Baseball B.C. Championship in Chilliwack.
They took down Tri-City in the semi-finals to face Cowichan Valley in the final, the two teams they beat in the same games respectively of the B.C. Minor Baseball provincials tournament on home soil on the August long weekend.
However, this time, it was the Mustangs coming out on top and the Knights lost by a close score of 10-9.
The season has officially come to a close for the 15U AAs, coming up short once again of a trip to Westerns.
