Bantam Tigers scratch out silver at provincials

Penticton bantam team wins 4 of 6 in Mission

The Penticton Tigers won four out of six games and earned the silver medal at the B.C. Bantam A Baseball Championships in Mission last week.

In the championship game, the Tigers’ depleted pitching staff ran out of gas against a tough Ridge Meadows team in a 13-3 loss.

Game MVP McGarry Allen tossed three solid innings before reaching his pitch limit and left with a 2-0 lead.

“The team played hard all weekend and performed above expectations,” said head coach Tony Orioli. “They did a fabulous job to come home with the silver medal.”

The Tigers went 3-1 in the round-robin, opening with a 13-8 comeback victory the host Mission team.

After falling behind 7-1 after three innings, the Tigers scored five in the sixth and seventh innings.

Game MVP Markus Snair had some key hits in the late innings and pitched a stellar one-two-three seventh inning for the save.

In Game 2, Riley Evasiuk went 4-for-5 and stole five bases to lead the Tigers past Newton 17-11.

After keeping it close in the early innings, the Tigers ran out of gas and lost to Maple Ridge Royals 16-6. Game MVP was Calum McGill with some great plays at catcher and a 3-for-4 hitting performance.

In their final round-robin game, which they had to win to reach the playoff round, the Tigers scored a tight 5-3 victory over Prince George. Game MVP Adrian Orioli pitched four hitless innings and also went 4-for-5 at the plate.

The semifinal was a thriller, as the Tigers prevailed 2-1 in two extra innings over the top-ranked Surrey Canadians.

After falling behind 1-0 early, the Tigers scored a run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Linden Gervais to plate McGill, who led off with a triple.

The seventh inning went scoreless and in extra innings — in the top of the ninth inning — Orioli hit a solo home run over the right field fence to win it for Penticton.

Allen came in for the pitching save in the bottom of the ninth and got the final out on a fly ball to Jacob Schulting in deep centre field.

MVP for the game was Ryan Paulhus, who pitched seven innings, striking out 15 and allowing only three hits.

The bantams became the second Tigers team to take a silver at provincials, with the peewee 2A team also placing second at their tournament.

Special to the Herald Members of the Penticton Tigers bantam A team are, back row, from left: Coach Tony Orioli, Markus Snair, Linden Gervais, McGarry Allen, Riley Evasiuk and Jacob Schulting. On ground kneeling are Atticus Young and Dylan Crawford, and laying down are Adrian Orioli, Ryan Paulhus and Calum McGill.