Fish Creek wins opener at Little League nationals

The Carolinas are calling Calgary Fish Creek. South Carolina, to be exact. What stands in the way of a baseball date in Easley, S.C., with a Senior Little League World Series title bid are five other championship-calibre Canadian clubs.

The 2017 Senior Little League Canadian Championship opened Wednesday at Calgary’s Richmond Greens ball fields, with the winner of the 14-16 age bracket getting crowned national champion and accepting the challenge of taking on the globe’s best at the Little League World Series.

And Calgary Fish Creek opened in a sweet way with an 18-8 victory over the Quebec representative.

“Being the host, sometimes you’re taken lightly by others because you didn’t earn your way into the tournament,” Fish Creek head coach Mike Strom said. “But the cat’s out of the bag after (Wednesday night). The other teams now know we’re a decent team and are here to have a lot of fun.”

Plus, they can obviously do some damage.

“To win anytime you face adversity feels great, and we did that (Wednesday),” Strom said.

The Prairies are represented by Edmonton’s Confederation Park. Cape Breton flies the colours of the Atlantic division. The alwaysstrong B.C. rep hails from Fraser Valley. And Ottawa West hopes to win the nationals for the Ontario region.

Strom and the hosts next play Thursday vs. Alberta (12:30 p.m.) and follow with games Friday against B.C. (9 a.m.), Saturday vs. the Atlantic squad (9 a.m.) and Sunday against Ontario (3:30 p.m.)

Then it’s the playoffs beginning Monday.

The weeklong event wraps up July 26, with the winner advancing to the Senior Little League World Series July 30-Aug. 5.