Celebration time
Knights honoured for their Western Canadian championship
Eleven years of minor baseball in Prince George left Mike Schwab with a major feeling of accomplishment. The capper of his career came last weekend in La Broquerie, Man., where Schwab and the PG SurgMed Knights captured the Western Canadian double-A midget championship.
Behind the two-hit pitching of Richard French, the Knights defeated the Manitoba champion Portage la Prairie Pirates 10-0 in five innings in the championship final on Sunday.
For Schwab and four other Knights playing their last rep team game at the midget level, it was a historic triumph. No other Prince George team has ever won at Westerns at the double-A level.
It was the last chance to represent Prince George in minor baseball for longtime Knights Schwab, Quinten Astorino, Liam Campbell, Ryan Hampe and Ajay Nickolet, who religiously made the commute from his home in Mackenzie to attend games and practices.
“We just have a lot of guys on this team who love to play baseball, we’ve consistently had everybody from the team showing up to put in the work to try to get better and we just love being around each other,” said the 18-year-old Schwab, the Knights’ second baseman. “If we had a practice and 9 a.m., guys would be there at 7 a.m.
“We’ve had a lot of talent each year and we have that target on our backs (as defending provincial champions) so we have that us-against-the-world mentality and I think it keeps us close.”
Sunday’s Western Canadian final was decided in the third inning. Astorino got it going with a double that cleared the bases and Derian Potskin followed up with a two-run home run – the only long bomb of the three-day U18 tournament. Brady Pratt and Kolby Lukinchuk also drove in runs in the inning to give the Knights a 7-0 lead.
“We came up short last year and it’s great to get it this year, a great way to end,” said Astorino, who is considering an offer to play ball next year at Okanagan College. “We just gel so much better, it’s more like a family this year. We’ve all got each other’s backs and it just helps our game, on and off the field.
“It’s been great being part of this, I couldn’t ask for a better program to be part of. We’ve got a good group of supportive parents. It’s a great way to end.”
The fleet-footed Schwab hit from the leadoff spot for the Knights and was at his best in the Knights’ second game of the tournament, accounting for all three runs in a 3-1 win over Portage. He hit a single and used his speed to force the Pirates into two throwing errors that got him on base and he crossed home plate each time he got on. Jack Varney, a pickup from the Tri-City Thunder, threw 79 pitches for a complete-game victory.
In their opening game, the Knights needed a huge comeback to beat the Beaumont Bosox of Alberta. Down 5-0 in the fifth, they scored three in the sixth and three more in the bottom of the seventh for a walk-off victory. Ladner Red Sox pickup Michael Tersingi’s sacrifice fly brought in the winning run.
That turned out to be a pivotal moment for the Knights, who lost their third game 6-5 in a walk-off ending to the defending champions, the Northwest Prairie Pirates of Lloydminster, Sask., who beat the Knights in the Western Canadian final in 2017. Had the Knights lost two games they would have been eliminated in the double-knockout tournament.
“Every game was close except the final,” said Schwab.
Schwab, who is heading for the University of Lethbridge and will be branching into college baseball at Prairie Baseball Academy, played his last game with the Knights Wednesday at Citizen Field, where they finished off the Prince George Senior Baseball League regular season with a 9-8 loss to the Northern Traditional Homes Orioles. The teams will meet in a bestof-five semifinal series which starts Tuesday.
Potskin hit six home runs this year in about six weeks of tournament play with the Knights.
“On this team, everybody’s good, everybody contributes,” said the 15-year-old Potskin.
Knights coach Russ Pratt said the addition of midget rookie Potskin and six-foot-seven Ryan Hampe, back after two years away from baseball to focus on volleyball, gave the Knights power at the plate they didn’t have the previous two seasons while winning three provincial championships.
The Knights won the Baseball BC provincial title on Aug. 11, a week after losing in the semifinal of the B.C. Minor provincial championship. They won both B.C. titles last year and captured the B.C. Minor provincial championship at Citizen Field in 2016.
They advanced to the final on Sunday with a 14-8 victory over the winless host team from La Broquerie, a game that was tied 8-8 in the fifth inning.
“It was their last game and they were winless and there was no pressure and they were swinging the bats well but they ran out of pitching and we broke open with the bats,” said Pratt. “Liam, Derian and Ajay got us the win.
“The real strength of this team is we were so deep in pitching. We’ve got seven or eight kids who can pitch.”
We came up short last year and it’s great to get it this year, a great way to end.
— Quinten Astorino