Cardinals Faced With a Loser-Goes-Home Matchup, Defeats Delta 6-5 in a Very Emotional and Nail-Biting Extra Inning Affair; West Coast Places 3rd In This Year's Baseball BC 15U AAA Qualifier

Posted July 15, 2017


Cardinals Faced With a Loser-Goes-Home Matchup, Defeats Delta 6-5 in a Very Emotional and Nail-Biting Extra Inning Affair; West Coast Places 3rd In This Year's Baseball BC 15U AAA Qualifier

Who could have predicted this...the two BC (Minor) Baseball Bantam AAA teams who finished 1,2 in this year's regular season were fighting for their provincial lives on day 3 of the 2017 Baseball BC 15U AAA Qualifier. With the final scores in from the last game of day 2 (Friday), the second of three games Saturday suddenly became the most anticipated matchup of this qualifier. McIntosh and his Delta Tigers vs. the West Coast Cardinals in a loser-goes-home, wow and if you missed this one...well you're gonna to want to tune in and thoroughly read what was the most emotional and nail-biting game from this year's qualifier.

 

CARDINALS 6 Delta 5 (8 innings)

The 15U BC Selects team recently finished a week of baseball down south in Chicago where Cam Frick, Ford Marcotte and Luke Yam got to coach together for the first time. 4 of Delta's best players were teammates with 5 of West Coast's best players and now just four days removed from their arrival at YVR, the feeling was mutual it was do whatever it takes to help your own team win in a do-or-die. With Crozier, Sugi and Yuen all unavailble to pitch for Saturday, the West Coast Cardinals turned to first-year LHP Taiki Suzuki who has been on a remarkable stretch on the mound lately. Suzuki has pitched to a 0.57 ERA over his last 8 appearances (16 1/3 innings) coming into this qualifying tournament, he was looking to give his team a chance to win taking the place of Hendriks who was unable to pitch this weekend due to a very untimely injury. The Delta Tigers sent their most physically mature player in this loser-goes-home matchup, Connor McIntosh, this would be the third time McIntosh has started against the Cardinals, he has pitched at least 6 innings in both of his previous starts against the Cardinals. And so it was on, one game with everything on the line, McIntosh vs. Suzuki, Frick vs. Yam, Tigers vs. Cardinals.

The first inning saw the Cardinals (away team) put the pressure on McIntosh and his Tigers early, Hendriks worked a 5-pitch walk and Sugi, despite falling in an 0-2 hole blooped a single into right field putting two runners on and none out. New on the first pitch he saw, bunted a ball in a perfect area where McIntosh tried to make a great play on but the throw was late, loading the bases with none out. With the Cardinals' cleanup hitter now up with the bases juiced and none out, McIntosh was now on the ropes; however, the big right hander wasn't fazed as he struck out Baybay and watched as Hendriks on the strikeout pitch tried to take home on a ball that only slightly got away from Heppner (Tigers' catcher) only to be tagged out at the dish by the aforementioned Heppner making it 2 out and Crozier up. Crozier couldn't come through as a routine groundball to Thomas at shortstop got Delta back in and fired up after escaping the massive first inning jam. Leading off the bottom of the 1st, was Delta's leadoff hitter and arguably the league's hottest hitter right now, in Connor McIntosh. Suzuki would show McIntosh just about his entire arsenal of pitches before retiring him on the first curveball of the day, a backwards K to his counterpart. Suzuki would K first-year stud Noah Thomas to end the inning as he would impressively retire the side in order on 13 pitches. Zeros after 1.

Turnbull would go the other way with an outside pitch driving it to right field for a single to lead off the 2nd, after a pickoff Turnbull felt something in his knee. Turnbull would be out at 2nd on a fielder's choice that followed his base hit, the key outfielder for the Cardinals would hobble his way back to the third base dugout. Suzuki was stranded at 1st to end the inning; however a stranded Suzuki was the least of Yam and his Cardinals' worries right now. With Turnbull unable to continue in this ballgame, Fukuoka took over duties in right field. Wegner would lead off the offensive 2nd for the Tigers with a base hit up the middle; with following batter Warkentin going down on strikes, Wegner would be caught leaning the other way as Suzuki picked off to 1st. An ill-advised decision to hang on to the ball near 2nd and go for the tag led to a botched rundown and a missed opportunity at a free 2nd out, instead Wegner was now standing on 2nd. With Frick (Delta's head coach) knowing that runs were going to come at premium, he had Richards lay down a sacrifice bunt putting Wegner 80' feet away from scoring the first run of the game. The move would payoff for the Tigers as Suzuki's inside pitch went off the glove of New scoring Wegner for the first run of this contest. The botched rundown and pass ball really seemed to affect Suzuki as the five batters that followed the run-scoring pass ball all got on base via. 4 walks and a base hit, the 4th walk issued by Suzuki forced home a run to make the score 3-0. With the very next pitch after the bases loaded walk delivered by Suzuki to Thomas being no where near the zone, Yam made the quick decision to stop the momentum as he pulled Suzuki and went to Powell. Powell despite being handed a tough situation, 1-0 count bases loaded and 2 out, he would escape the jam getting Thomas to fly out to Sugi in CF ending a frustrating inning for the Cards that all got started with a botched rundown. 3-0 Tigers after 2.

The 3rd and 4th innings were relatively quiet as McIntosh looked to have settled in after a shaky first, the right-handed beast from Delta was throwing harder than ever, locked in with an almost unhittable breaking ball and for the most part looked like he wasn't going to be stopped. Powell, who took over mound duties for Suzuki in the 2nd continued to shut the door and give West Coast a chance at coming back, Powell who has had an up-and-down year on the mound, despite some mind games being played by Delta throughout his time on the mound, #9 didn't let it faze him as he looked to be at his very best throughout the 3rd and 4th innings in this now long relief appearance.

West Coast finally got to McIntosh and the Tigers in the top half of the 5th, Fukuoka who was getting his first appearance at the dish taking over duties for Turnbull in the 2nd got the party started. A dribbler down the line ate up McCarthy at third, the Tigers unfortunately were playing without their regular third baseman as Noah Thomas had to fill the position to his left due to the absence of regular shortstop and 2nd year stud Braedy Euerby. Powell who was also getting his first plate appearance this game, would single through the right side putting runners at 1st and 2nd and none out. Yam knew he needed to get some runs plated before it was too late, not thinking about tying the game this inning but rather get what he could from this prime opportunity. 9-batter Miles couldn't execute the SAC bunt and ended up striking out on a McIntosh fastball for the first out of the inning. Hendriks would pickup Miles as #38 despite not being able to throw at a 100% would provide at the plate, hitting a hard double over the head of Siemens in right field plating Fukuoka with ease and Powell having to be held up at 3rd. The deficit now cut to 2 with the tying run in Hendriks standing on 2, McIntosh would get a huge strikeout, sitting the Cards' best hitter this season in Sugi down on strikes. 3-batter and catcher New would now come up with a chance to redeem himself for a pass ball mistake that led to Delta's first run, the unusual 3-batter for West Coast would come through hitting a clutch 2-out RBI single up the gut scoring both Powell and Hendriks (tying run) without a throw, the game was now tied. See the 2 RBI single by New here. Powell would work around a single by Thomas keeping the score tied at 3s after 5 complete.

With Powell still pitching well and both teams entering the bottom of the 6th tied at 3s, the Tigers would finally solve the mystery behind the fastball-knuckleball Powell. Richards would lead off the bottom of the 6th and the LH hitter with a peculiar batting stance would crush an 1-0 fastball to deep centre, off the bat it looked like a clear triple to dead centre but arguably one of the best centrefielders in the league took over. Sugi would move back on the ball and make an unbelievable catch just to his glove side looking "Willie Mays-esque" out there, Richards and Frick in completely astonishment that a ball like that was caught for the first out of the inning. A walk and hit by pitch followed, putting two runners on and 1 out for 9-batter Spencer. With Frick having Richards lay down a sac bunt with 1 out in the 2nd inning, Yam thought that another SAC was in place so he brought his pull fielder in to place 3B and 3rd baseman, Baybay to play in expecting a SAC bunt. Spencer would hit a ball to shallow left field as Sugi would run all the way from CF to make the F8 putout despite tha ball being caught in left field for a big 2nd out. With McIntosh now up with runners at 1st and 2nd, Yam made a risky managerial move with 2 out, intentionally walking McIntosh moving the tying run just 80' away and loading the bases for 2-batter Heppner. With Kang on the bench and being informed that he would be coming in with the bases loaded and 2 out, Yam went through with the plan. Kang came in for Powell and was hoping to duplicate what transpired last game, the first-year from Coquitlam struck out the side working out of a bases loaded no out jam against Community in the 7th yesterday, the Cardinals were hoping he could come through just like he did no less than 24 hours ago. What came about you can watch here.

With Kang bringing the momentum back to his side with the huge strikeout to end the inning, the Cards with some quality at-bats were now just an inning away from saying "goodbye" to McIntosh and "hello" to Delta's bullpen. The adrenaline pumping through Kang after the clutch strikeout on the mound looked to carry over to his batting, Kang led off the inning but went down swinging against McIntosh for the first out of the inning. This brought up 9-batter Miles who on the second pitch got a McIntosh fastball straight in the back, putting him on with the free pass. Leadoff hitter Hendriks was now up, and despite falling down 0-2 Hendriks would poke an outside fastball to RF putting runners at 1st and 2nd and 1 out with Sugi up. McIntosh would get the best of Sugi again as he got #3 to flyout to right for 2nd out of the 7th. With McIntosh at 93 pitches, Yam told New to take 1 pitch before swinging away, McIntosh made the most of the 94th pitch slinging it in there for a first pitch strike; however, New couldn't clutch up like he did in the 5th inning grounding out to Warkentin at 1B for the final out of the top of the 7th, thus ending McIntosh's outing, a complete game allowing 3 runs and still in line for the win. 

Yam called his team for a huddle just outside the 3rd base dugout letting them know that this was the biggest defensive inning of the game right here. Shut down Delta and this game goes to the 8th inning with not only a new pitcher on the mound but the pressure of Baseball BC's international rules to kick off the inning. The bottom of the 7th didn't start out in West Coast's favour as Thomas would hit a 2-strike fastball the other way for a single to kickstart the offensive 7th for Delta. Wegner would hit a ball hard to Crozier at 2nd, Crozier would show his vertical and make a great catch then double off Thomas at 1st. The huge double play can be seen here. A single by the very next batter, Warkentin would become moot point as Richards would strike out to end the inning, the strikeout on Richards can be seen here, setting up what would be a heck of a finish in extras. Still 3-3 after 7 complete!

With Baseball BC's modified international rules now taking over for every extra inning forward, Sugi would start at 2nd base, New would start at 1st base with none out to begin the inning...talk about pressure for first-year Boston Warkentin who was now on the mound after McIntosh's complete game start. The Cards were very fortunate to have cleanup hitter and the veteran leader Thomas Baybay at the plate to kick off the 8th. Frick surprisingly brought his oppo outfielder (RF) in to 3rd base and 3rd basmeman in, either expecting a SAC bunt or double steal from the Cardinal baserunners. The move would not pay off as Yam had no intentions of taking the bat out of the hands of an already fired up Baybay at the plate, Baybay would drill a Warkentin fastball to RF scoring Sugi with ease from 2nd and with Frick yelling "FOUR FOUR FOUR!" to his centre-fielder who had to run all the way from CF to RF to pick up the ball and throw the ball to home with no cut in place, Yam sent New all the way home from first as Heppner received the throw and tagged New out on a do-or-die play. Yam playing the percentages and knew that the throw had to be perfect and he needed every run he could get, the send home didn't pay off but Baybay was still standing on 2nd with 1 out. Baybay's HUGE hit can be seen here. The Cardinals didn't let up as 5-batter Crozier would flare one to RF as miscommunication and flare from the sun had the ball land putting two runners on and 1 out, both runners advanced into scoring position from a wild pitch bringing up Yuen in a big situation. With a 3-0 count on Yuen, Yam gave Yuen the "greenlight" as Yuen took a hard hack and fouled back the 3-0 pitch, Yuen also fouled back the 3-1 pitch in a squeeze attempt running the count full. What changed between now and the next pitch fired everyone up, something was blurted out from the Delta dugout after Yuen's attempted squeeze the unecessary comment by the Delta side evidently seem to fire Yam and Baybay up, the very next pitch Yuen would drive a Warkentin breaking ball right back up the middle past a sprawling Thomas at short bringing home Baybay and making it 5-3 Cards. See the at-bat unfold here! Symons came in to hit for Fukuoka at a critical time, Symons would execute the safety squeeze as Crozier plated the 6th run for the Cards on the RBI SAC bunt. See it here! 6-3 Cards after 7 1/2 innings.

Good news: The Cards were now up 3. Bad news: The tying run was at the plate with none out to begin the inning. West Coast came in for what would hope to be one last huddle this game with Baybay initiating "HEART!" on 3, catch it here. And so the nail-biting continued, the Tigers at their bottom 3 in their order up to bat and McIntosh looming in the double hole. Kang still out there for the 8th and Symons who was in left field to begin the 8th was ready to pitch if needed, Kang would get Bach to groundout into the 4-6 fielder's choice putting runners on the corners and 1 out. McCarthy would be up next and he would also groundout this time on the 3U putting both runners in scoring position and 2 out with 9-batter Carter Spencer representing the tying run at the plate. If you're heart wasn't pumping yet, it will be after what transpired with what happened next. Spencer would hit a ball to RF, what looked like a routine fly to right fielder Cody Hendriks was dropped as he went to celebrate before realizing the ball tipped off his glove and rolled into foul territory, both runners came in to score and Spencer (the tying run) was now on 2nd with the hottest hitter on the planet, McIntosh now up. Check out the 2 out error here. With McIntosh up, Yam made a decision that would either pay off big time or regret for the rest of the season; Yam gave New the intentional walk sign putting the winning run in Connor McIntosh on first. The Cards made it clear today that they were not going to let one guy beat 13 of them, they stuck with their plan and weren't going to give in to McIntosh, the first intentional walk to McIntosh in the 6th paid off...would this also pay off in a situation of greater magnitude? Sean Heppner, who represented Delta well in Chicago as part of the 15U Select team was now up, he was 0-3 while drawing a bases loaded walk in his 4 plate appearances today, Heppner couldn't come through for his team in the 6th but was looking for revenge here in the 8th with the tying run at 2nd and winning run at 1st. Click here to see how Heppner vs. Kang with 2 outs unfolded. A fly ball to Sugi that looked like a double off bat, caught by the CF wearing the white digital camo who maybe didn't have an all-star day at the plate but provided huge outs for the Cards in the field. 6-5 Cards your final in 8 innings.

 

What a game! Easily the most exciting, emotional and nail-biting game of the tournament, tip of the cap to Frick and his Delta Tigers for another hard fought game and we look forward to another battle in two weeks time with both teams setting their sights solely on the BC (Minor) Baseball provincial title. Congrats to Chilliwack and Vancouver Community for finishing 1st and 2nd respectively in this year's qualifier, both teams came ready to play and deserved their berth in Parksville next month. With Cloverdale's loss to Vancouver Community, West Coast clinches 3rd in this year's Baseball BC qualifier; big thanks to Kaleb Adrain and James Bohn who were call-ups this weekend and helped out where needed! The Cards will take a much needed few days off to rest up and heal some injuries and sore arms, they will be back at it Wednesday (exhibition) vs. Cloverdale and Saturday (exhibition DH) vs. Community. Team outings Monday and Friday with a light practice mixed in Thursday. The team will ramp it up with hard practices Sunday-Tuesday before getting a day off in anticipation for what will undoubtedly be a BC (Minor) Baseball Bantam AAA provincial for the ages!

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BELOW IS WHAT FINISHING 3RD PLACE AT THIS YEAR'S BASEBALL BC QUALIFER MEANS FOR THE WEST COAST CARDINALS:

 
1) If the West Coast Cardinals win (come 1st) the BC Minor provincials (hosted in Richmond) they will NOT play the one game playoff against the Bantam PBL team on August 1st. West Coast will be going to New Jersey instead. The wild card Bantam PBL team who was slated to play West Coast on August 1st will instead get the berth to the Baseball BC Provincials in Parksville, BC.
 
2) If Chilliwack or Vancouver Community wins (comes 1st) the BC Minor provincials (hosted in Richmond). This means West Coast DID NOT win the BC Minor provincials and West Coast will NOT need to play the one game playoff against the Bantam PBL team. Both West Coast and the wild card Bantam PBL team will advance to Baseball BC Provincials in Parksville, BC.
 
3) If anyone but West Coast, Chilliwack or Vancouver Community wins BC Minor provincials (hosted in Richmond) West Coast will NEED to play a one game playoff against the second place team from the Bantam PBL Qualifier (the Bantam PBL Qualifier is held the same weekend as the BC Minor provincials). This one game playoff will be held on August 1st located at a neutral site.

 

 



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