Midget Knights back on top
The P.G. Surg Med Knights have stitched together another provincial baseball championship.
They did it the hard way, ripping victory out of the jaws of defeat with a late comeback in their semifinal playoff before going on to beat the Vancouver Canadians 9-4 Sunday afternoon in the BC Minor Baseball midget double-A final in Kelowna.
In the final, the Knights were down 4-2 after three innings until Kaelon Gibbs tied it in the fourth with one swing – a two-run home run.
Jake Anker got them going with a single and a stolen base and came home on Jacob Fillion’s base hit to give the Knights the lead. Fillion then stole two bases and scored from third base when Zach Fillion drove out a single. The Knights added two more in the sixth and had one in the seventh.
Kolby Lukinchuk pitched 6 1/3 innings for the Knights, giving up just seven hits. Semifinal starter Jacob Ross came in and got the last two outs.
“We were on a pretty big high there after the semifinal and it was tough not to think that the boys were going to come through and even in the semifinal I didn’t have a doubt,” said Hannon.
Zach Fillion, who played in the outfield, finished with 18 RBI in the six games. The Knights outscored their opponents a combined 86-22 in their six games.
Hours before the final Sunday, the Knights put together a comeback for the ages in their semifinal against the Vancouver Expos. Trailing the Expos 8-1 to start the bottom half of the sixth inning of their semifinal playoff in Kelowna, Derian Potskin swatted his fifth home run of the tournament, and with two out they scored 13 more runs to take a 14-8 lead.
Vancouver added one more run in the seventh inning but it wasn’t nearly enough and they lost 15-9.
“We were down 8-1 in the bottom of the sixth and I brought the boys in and said, ‘we’ve got a lot of pride in this program and you’ve got keep your heads held high and just chip away,’ and Darien Potskin led off with a first-pitch home run that sparked the boys,” said Hannon.
“Unfortunately after that we went down two outs, but we put a lot of pace into the play and a lot of singles and doubles and a lot of hits to put up 13 runs and won that game 15-9.
“That wasn’t an easy game on the coaches or parents but everybody stuck with it. We had Brady Pratt come in (to pitch) in the second inning and he shut the door the rest of the game.”
The Expos gave up six walks. Richard French, Jacob Fillion and Zach Fillion each doubled for Prince George and Pratt hit an RBI single.
“It was an hour-and-10-minute inning and the other team was just deflated,” said Hannon, part of a Knights coaching staff that includes head coach Murray Lukinchuk and assistants Dylan Lukinchuk, Buck Schmidt.
The Knights lost the BC Minor provincial title last year in the final, losing to Aldergrove.
In the last four years the Knights have won five provincial championships – three B.C. Minor crowns and two Baseball BC titles.
They’ll go after their sixth in four years when they head to Burnaby Thursday for the Baseball BC provincial tournament.
The winner of that seven-team event will advance to the Western Canadian championship in Strathmore, Alta., Aug. 15-18.
The Knights are the defending Western Canadian champions.