15U Nationals Day #1 – Team BC victorious in an epic 10-inning opening game

It’d been two and a half weeks since the Delta Blue Jays played their last competitive ball game, a wild 10-6 victory over the Whalley Chiefs that clinched Delta’s second straight trip to Nationals. Back in 2019, the squad just fell short in the championship game against Ontario in Oshawa. Now that they’ve landed for the 2022 tournament in Saskatoon, the belief that Team BC can take it all the way this time is undeniable. Pick-ups Luke Laird from Langley and Ian Vandepol from Chilliwack will give the team a big boost, with the bats and on the mound. The first obstacle for Team BC was the Quebec provincial team, who they also defeated in the tournament three years ago.

Team Quebec 6, TEAM BC 7 (F/10)

               BC put one on the board in each of their first two at-bats against a tough right-handed starter from Quebec. Hunter McLean sliced one into right that dropped in front of a diving Quebec defender, the ball dribbling behind him as he laid on the outfield grass, allowing McLean to motor all the way to third for a one-out triple. The next batter was Smyan Billing, coming off a provincial run where he went 8-for-12 at the dish. He also floated one into right field to drive in the game’s first run. In the 2^nd, shortstop Kotaro Kawai lined one up the middle to lead things off, advanced to 2^nd on a bunt, later scoring on an overthrow from the Quebec catcher who tried to catch Kawai stealing third. It remained 2-0 BC until the top of the 5^th, when Quebec really cranked the pressure up on Team BC. Three straight singles began the inning, knocking BC starter Vandepol out of the game – he departed after 4+ innings at just over 60 pitches, which means he’ll be eligible to pitch again in a potential semi-final on Sunday. Delta ace Jake Fehr took over on the hill, walking the first batter he faced to load the bases with nobody out, BC up by 1. The first pitch to the Quebec leadoff man was a comebacker to Fehr, who started the ole 1-2-3 double play, turned by ’08 catcher Desmond Tregaskis. Fehr got the third out on another comebacker, escaping the threat with his team still in front 2-1. BC got that run right back in the bottom half, Luke Laird making it happen all by himself with two outs. He poked a single into right, stole second and moved up to third on another costly overthrow by the Quebec catcher, then made it home on a passed ball next pitch. It’s 3-1 heading to the top of the 7^th, BC just three outs away from getting off to a winning start. Fehr sat down the first two batters he faced on strikes, but the final out proved to a bit more elusive. Taking advantage of an infield error, Quebec sent the game to extra innings with a couple of ringing hits. Their pitcher hitting in the #10 hole lined one to the fence in left-centre, which scored the tying run from first base, BC narrowly missing cutting that run down at the plate to end the game. Instead, the boys from Delta were destined for their 8^th extra-inning game of the season, hoping to improve to 7-1 in those contests.

               Hunter McLean took over on the bump for BC in the 8^th, where international rules were in effect. Each team would start with runners on 1^st and 2^nd in extra innings, and no runs scored in these innings will count against either team’s runs against total. McLean got Quebec’s best hitter to line out to left field for the first out, but the next flyball to left dropped untouched between three BC boys as Quebec took their first lead of the ball game. A second run plated for Quebec in the inning on a wild pitch to make it 5-3, so BC was forced to cash in both of their gifted baserunners to stay alive. Lucas Holt was first in the box, fell behind in the count 1-2 and still managed to execute a perfect sac bunt to move both runners into scoring position. Next it was Ed Wilde coming off the bench for BC and smoking one into right field to cut the deficit to a single run. Laird then stepped in for his fourth AB and skied one down the left-field line for a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 5. In the top of the 9^th, Quebec couldn’t scratch one across after they sacrificed their runners to second and third. McLean came up with a huge strikeout of the opposing pitcher for the second out, then got the next guy on a soft infield pop-up. All BC needed to walk it off was one, and they started the bottom of the 9^th with two of their quickest runners on base. Billing took strike one as Laird and McLean pulled off a double steal, so Quebec decided to intentionally walk Billing to set up the force at home plate. The rest of the 9^th did not go according to plan – a backwards K for the first out, followed by a popped-up squeeze that turned into an inning-ending double play. On to the 10^th, just like Delta’s provincial semi-final game.

               McLean racked up another big-time strikeout for the first out in the 10^th after both Quebec runners advanced on a passed ball. Now it was BC’s turn to issue the intentional pass to the #3 hitter to load the bases, but their infield stayed back. The next batter ripped a groundball to Billing at first, who got a force out at 2^nd but they could not turn the double play, so a run scored to make it 6-5 Quebec. Another grounder got BC out of it, then the bottom of the 10^th started exactly how the 9^th did. A double steal compelled Quebec to intentionally walk Kawai, loading the bases with nobody out. Noah Farnden was next up for BC, he hit a hard grounder right at the second baseman who threw it home for the force – then the Quebec catcher committed his third error of the game, as his attempt to double up Farnden at first sailed into foul territory down the right-field line, allowing both the tying and winning runs to score for Team BC!

The boys flew out of the dugout to celebrate behind home plate, a hard-fought 7-6 win that lasted nearly 3 hours. BC had to expend more pitching than they bargained for, but the win was far more important. They’ll try to notch another in the W column on Friday when they face the hosts from Saskatchewan at 11:30am local time.