Capitals can’t turn hits into playoff berth
St. John’s finishes 1-3 at national senior championship in B.C.
The St. John’s Capitals, representing Newfoundland and Labrador, lost their last two round-robin games Saturday to finish out of the medal round at the Canadian senior men’s baseball championship in Victoria, B.C.
The Capitals would have secured at least a quarterfinal berth with a win over the Ilderton, Ont., Red Army, but fell 16-7 in a game in which half of the runs scored were unearned.
A potential playoff berth was still on the line as St. John’s took on the Coquitlam, B.C., Angels in its final game of the round-robin, but even though the Capitals rapped out 11 hits compared to eight for the British Columbia representatives, they lost 7-3, scoring all their runs in the final inning.
Daniel Rice was the Capitals’ top hitter for the tourney, reaching base six times in 11 plate appearances and fashioning a .500 batting average. Dave Penney (.429) and Trevor Clarke (.385) rounded out the top three batter for St. John’s, which hit well for average as a team, (.263), but suffered from lack of power. Of the team’s 31 hits in Victoria, 28 were singles, with the other three being doubles.
In all, the Capitals — who had seven junior-aged players on the roster — left 31 runners on base in their four games.
On the pitching side, Dan Connors had been solid for St. John’s in the Newfoundlanders’ lone win, delivering a complete-game performance and scattering eight hits in a 5-1 decision over Alberta. On the whole, though, the Capitals’ hurlers had a collective earned-run average of just under 6.00, while giving up 45 hits in 27 innings of work.