Christian J. Stewart
Island Sports News
The 91原创 Senior Blaze have done it again, capturing their second consecutive B.C. provincial senior men鈥檚 baseball championship.
91原创 was facing the Kamloops Sun Devils on Monday afternoon at Victoria鈥檚 Lambrick Park.
91原创 had advanced straight to the championship game after a 4-0 round robin record.
The Sun Devils won 4-3 but since the playoffs were a double knockout format, one more game was needed.
And twice Kamloops led in the climactic game, going ahead 4-1 and 5-4, but 91原创 rallied both times to win 8-5.
鈥淚t feels great to come through with the win,鈥� said Blaze coach Dave Diachuk.
鈥淚t was a tough grind (but) our boys battled hard and we got our hits and scored our runs when we needed to, especially in that sixth inning today.鈥�
In that inning, the Sun Devils scored once to go ahead 5-4 and had the bases loaded with one out. But Jesse Peters induced a ground ball force out at home and then a fly out to escape the jam.
Joe Germaine tied the game with a solo home run 鈥� his second of the game 鈥� to start the bottom of the sixth and that was a sign of things to come. Zach Mihic got on base with a double and then scored on Graig Merritt鈥檚 two-out double for 91原创鈥檚 first lead, 6-5.
And Scott Webster would put the final nail in the coffin with a two-run blast to make it 8-5.
Any chance of a comeback was snuffed out as reliever Shawn Schaefer retired the side in order in the seventh to close the game out.
Mike Krische also had an RBI single while Clayton Howell had a sacrifice fly.
The team鈥檚 other run came when Germaine scored on a bases-loaded wild pitch.
Webster earned the tournament鈥檚 most valuable player award.
The Blaze finished the round robin with a 4-0 record to advance straight to the finals.
The victory qualifies them for the 2014 Canadian senior men鈥檚 national championships, which will be held in Newfoundland.
They next play in Windsor, Ont. for the 2013 nationals, which they qualified for last August. The team leaves on Aug. 20 for the championships, which run Aug. 22 to 26.
