Mariners punch ticket to Premier League Final 5

Why have a Final Four when you can have a Final Five?

The Victoria Mariners made it the latter in the B.C. Premier Baseball League by defeating the Okanagan Athletics 8-3 Sunday in the deciding third game of their best-of-three playoff series at Layritz Park.

The Mariners advance to the Final Five taking place this weekend at Elks Stadium in Kelowna. Since the Athletics are hosting, they get an automatic berth into the league final tournament.

Joining the Mariners and Athletics will be the Langley Blaze, Abbotsford Cardinals and North Shore Twins.

The regular-season champion Blaze defeated the eighth-seed Mid-Island Pirates of Nanaimo 3-0 and 3-2 to take that opening-round playoff series 2-0.

The other Island playoff team, Parksville Royals, also went out 2-0 after falling 10-0 and 9-1 in North Shore.

Abbotsford swept the Coquitlam Reds 11-1 and 9-3.

The Victoria-Okanagan series was the only one that went the distance. The deciding game was tied 3-3 in the top of the 6th inning before the Mariners busted loose with five runs in the bottom of the inning. Mariners relievers Aidan Heintz and Araki Shuta retired the last five Okanagan batters in order. Jon Gale of the Mariners had a triple and three RBIs while Josh Walker went two-four with two RBIs and Araki Shuta knocked in two runs with his key lone hit.