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OC Coyotes host baseball championship; Sun Devils 11-1; A's win one of four

The majority of the Okanagan College Coyotes will have unfinished business on their minds this week at the Canadian College Baseball Conference championship at Kelowna’s Elks Stadium.

Photo Gallery (39 photos) on KelownaNowSports Facebook page

<who>Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNow </who>Aiden Mordecai and the Okanagan College Coyotes' pitching staff will be counted on heavily to avenge the loss in the CCBC championship game of a year ago at Elks Stadium.It was a year ago that the host Coyotes were leading the Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs by a run with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning of the championship game, only to give up the tying and winning runs and allow the Lethbridge-based team to claim its sixth straight CCBC title.

“With many returning players from the 2017 team, we’re looking to finish the job,” said OC’s head coach, Geoff White, prior to Wednesday’s opening games of the six-team playoffs at Elks. “We have a solid team back and if we’re firing on all cylinders, specifically on the mound, we will be in the mix and with a chance to avenge last year’s loss.”

<who>Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNow </who>Catcher Jake Fischer leads OC with a .340 batting average.Although finishing the regular season on the past weekend with a mediocre 15-13 record, the Coyotes are 8-2 in their final 10 games and are looking to run deep into the championship tournament.

“We’ve been working hard all year for this weekend — we’ve had some bumps and bruises along the way — but we’ve been playing better baseball of late,” noted White.

The Coyotes, third-place finishers in the regular season, will begin round-robin play on Wednesday against the third-place University of the Fraser Valley Cascades.

The full schedule on opening day at Elks is as follows:

10 a.m. - Prairie Baseball Academy (#1) vs University of Calgary (#6)

1 p.m. - University of the Fraser Valley (#2) vs Thompson Rivers University (#4)

<who>Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNow </who>Noah Wood-Jolivet starts a double play against the VIU Mariners on the past weekend at Elks.4:30 p.m.- Prairie Baseball Academy (#1) vs Vancouver Island University (#5)

7:30 p.m. - University of the Fraser Valley (#2) vs Okanagan College (#3)

Once again it will be the PBA Dawgs as heavy favourites to claim their seventh consecutive CCBC crown. They finished with a 21-3 record in the regular season, 6 1/2 games ahead of runner-up Fraser Valley, playing in the league for the first time.

<who>Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNow </who>OC's Trevor Lofstrom tied for second in the CCBC with five home<br> runs. He finished with 26 RBI.As for the Coyotes, they earned a split in four games with the Dawgs in Lethbridge less than month ago.

The championship tournament resumes on Thursday with three games, including an Okanagan College matchup (7:30 p.m.) against the Vancouver Island University Mariners, a team with whom the Coyotes split (1-4 and 13-9) on the past weekend at Elks.

Friday will see three more games on the schedule, with OC taking on the PBA Dawgs in round-robin play, also beginning at 7:30 p.m.

The Coyotes’ final round-robin match is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday against the cellar-dwelling (5-17) University of Calgary Dinos.

Semifinal play begins on Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with the first-place team in round-robin play meeting the fourth-place finishers. The other semi goes at 10 a.m. on Sunday between the second- and third-place teams.

The 2017 CCBC championship will be decided beginning at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.

Full schedule

Kelowna Sun Devils improve midget AAA record to 11-1

The Kelowna Sun Devils continued their winning ways in the B.C. 18U (midget AAA) Baseball League on the weekend — again at the expense of the Vernon Canadians.

Coming off a two-game sweep of their North Okanagan rivals a week earlier, the first-place Sun Devils maintained their superiority and improved to 11-1 on the season by posting 9-2 and 17-12 victories on Saturday at Edith Gay Park in Kelowna.

Photo Gallery (47 photos) on KelownaNowSports Facebook page

<who>Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNow </who>Gavin Barrett of the Kelowna Sun Devils watches his hit ball clear the left field fence for a home run against Vernon.Home runs by Gavin Barrett and Kurtis Wall highlighted of the offensive outburst in the first game. Barrett, hitting .429, went 2-for-3 and drove in four runs to lead the Sun Devils while Wall (.407) contributed three hits and two runs-batted-in. Nathan Ringness-Law added a single and a double.

Jay Taylor took to the mound for his first start of the season, but left after one inning due to an upper body injury. Jordan Laidaw took over and pitched four innings. He allowed just two hits, struck out three and scattered two hits while Nathan Ringness-Law closed the deal with two shutout innings.

<who>Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNow </who>Kurtis Wall receives a royal welcome at the plate after hitting a home run against the Vernon Canadians.Despite leaving 11 runners on base, the Sun Devils racked up enough runs to earn their fourth straight victory over the Canadians in the second game.

Jackson Sowerby and Jaimes Guidon both hit a pair of singles for Kelowna in the free-swinging matchup. Noah Ringness Law, hitting .583 on the season, stroked a run-scoring triple while younger brother, Nathan (.483) chipped in with a double and two stolen bases.

<who>Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNow </who>Jordan Laidlaw earned the pitching win in the first game of the Sun Devils' doubleheader.Rookie Dreyton Nelmes started on the mound for the winners while Alex Thompson pitched a solid inning of relief before giving way to Nathan Ringness-Law, who picked up his first win of the season.

The Sun Devils resume play on Sunday at Edith Gay when they take on the third-place Cloverdale Spurs (7-4-1). The first game of the doubleheader begins at 11 a.m. and the second at 2 p.m.

Photo Gallery (47 photos) on KelownaNowSports Facebook page

Standings

Athletics salvage one win on road trip to Langley

Unable to build on the reliable efforts of their pitching ace, the Okanagan Athletics lost three of their four games against the Langley Blaze in B.C. Premier (Midget) Baseball League play on the weekend.

Carter Morris pitched another gem for the Kelowna-based Athletics on Saturday, limiting the host Blaze to just three hits while striking out seven in seven innings for a 3-0 win and for his third victory in four starts this season. The Vernon product is now 3-1 on the season with the league’s third-best earned run average of 0.28.

<who>Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNow </who>Austin Brown went on the offensive against the Blaze.But while Morris proved the stopper again, the A’s couldn’t sustain their winning ways, dropping a pair of games (12-1 and 10-7) on Sunday while they opened the weekend by falling 7-1 decision on Saturday.

Even in their only win at McLeod Athletic Park, the A’s managed just four hits in support of Morris, whose teammates scored all the runs they would need (two) in the first inning and added one in the second.

Austin Brown smacked the lone extra-base hit, a double, to drive in a run, while the other run-batted-in came on an Ethan Soroka single. Dylan Faulkner and James Fischer contributed the other Okanagan hits.

In their opener on Saturday, Brown hit another double to drive in a run, but it would be the only one the A’s would get against Langley’s Kyle Prather, who held the Okanagan lineup to three hits, including a double by Fischer.

Keaton Mandryk took the loss on the hill, allowing six earned runs over four innings and issuing five bases-on-balls.

Sunday’s first game saw the Blaze score six runs in the fourth inning and four more in the fifth to mercy the A’s, who collected four hits in a losing cause. Brown again doubled and scored while the Athletics’ singles came from Colton Schaper-Kotter, Fischer and Jackson Borne.

Soroka was the losing pitcher. He gave up six hits and seven earned runs in 3 1/3 innings.

The final game of the weekend, saw the Athletics combine for the most hits (seven singles from seven different players) in the four games, but they still weren’t enough as the Blaze replied with 10 of their own on the way to the 10-7 victory.

Cole Van Every drove in three of the A’s runs while Fischer had a pair of RBI. Kade Kozak was tagged with the pitching loss, lasting 4 2/3 innings after giving up five hits, two earned runs and four walks. He finished with five strikeouts.

The Athletics are back on the road again this weekend, traveling to North Vancouver to take on the second-place North Shore Twins (10-3) for a pair of doubleheaders.

The next home game for the A’s is May 27 when they play host to the Whalley Chiefs in a doubleheader at Elks Stadium.

BCPBL Standings



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