Canucks fall in provincial final
The Moose Jaw Canucks opened the tournament with a 12-8 win over the Regina Pacers and went on to score 62 runs through the weekend of games, falling 13-10 to the Pacers in a dramatic gold medal game.
Along the way, the Canucks defeated the Saskatoon Thunder Braves 13-5 and Prince Albert Royals 15-14 in the round robin before defeating the Dinsmore Dynamos 12-7 in the semifinal.
“There were a lot of runs scored on both ends, the bats were there the whole weekend top to bottom and there weren’t too many dead spots,” said Canucks coach Kevin Zerff. “Then our defence was solid, the pitching was solid and the guys played well in the field.
“We always said that if everything came together we could beat any one of these teams, and that showed this weekend,” he added.
A day after scoring seven runs in the final inning to defeat Prince Albert, the Canucks found themselves on the other side of a stunning comeback – giving up five runs in the seventh to lose the provincial final. Earlier in the game, the Canucks staged a comeback of their own, overcoming a 7-4 deficit with five runs in the fifth. “Tyler Lorenz led the offence with a 4-for-5 performance that included four runs batted in. Ryan Zerff and Tysen Jordison split time on the mound.
The semifinal played out in eerily similar fashion as the final, as Dinsmore held a 7-3 led in the fifth only to see Moose Jaw take over the game with seven runs in their half of the inning – and this time make the lead stick. Lorenz was 4-for-4 with two runs; Riley Skarbon 2-for4 with two walks and two RBI.
Bryden Pow was the winning pitcher, giving up five runs on six hits in five innings of work.
In the final round robin game, the Canucks trailed 14-8 heading into their last at bat when all heck broke lose, starting when the Pacers looked to have a player that had pitched earlier in the day take over at catcher. That’s against Baseball Sask rules, with the goal of protecting player’s arms from overuse. “Unfortunately, they made a mistake or overlooked it because they didn’t have enough personnel,” Zerff said. “It’s a serious rule and we have to follow it. It brought in a lot of emotion and it just added to the weirdness.” Prince Albert’s coach was ejected for arguing the rule, and they didn’t have another certified coach on the bench, which would have resulted in a forfeit if not for a Royals parent who was certified coming out of the crowd and taking over for their team.
All the rigmarole came to a head when the Canucks scored their seven runs in the bottom of the inning to take the win.
Pow was 3-for-3 with two runs and two RBI, Jordison 2-for-3 with a three runs scored and Keian Klein 3-for-4 with three RBI.
Chayce Vanthuyne and Jeremy Kohl split time on the mound.
Pow couldn’t miss at the plate in the Canucks’ second round robin game, putting together a 5-for-5 perfor- mance, scoring four runs and knocking in three.
The Canucks wasted little time taking over the contest, scoring three runs in the first and building an 8-2 lead through four innings.
That was more than enough for Lorenz and Ryley Gross on the mound, with Lorenz pitching into the fourth and giving up two runs on four hits; Gross gave up a single run on three hits in closing out the game.
A six-run fourth inning gave the Canucks a 9-2 lead in their opening game win.
Zerff went 3-for-4 with three runs scored while Gross was 3-for-4 and also crossed the plate twice. Jordison, Zerff, Pow and Kohl all split time on the mound.