With just four games remaining in the BC Junior Premier Baseball League season, the White Rock Junior Tritons sit in second place and appear primed for a strong playoff run next month.
The under-16 team has a win-loss record of 27-9, and are currently in the midst of a three-game win streak, after winning two games against the Mid-Island Junior Pirates Sunday at South Surrey Athletic Park, and another Tuesday night in North Delta against the Junior Blue Jays.
A day before Sunday’s two wins, White Rock lost both ends of a Saturday doubleheader to the North Shore Junior Twins.
“We’ve had a couple hiccups throughout the year,” is how Junior Tritons coach Jordan Broatch described the North Shore sweep. “But then we always seem come back and win a bunch of games in a row.”
Tuesday’s victory was by a 9-5 margin, with the visiting Tritons scoring twice in the first inning before tacking on five more in a third. Leading 7-3 through four innings, they added two more in the fifth to eventually win by four.
White Rock had nine hits – two from Jason Blouin, who had a double and three runs-batted-in – and Blouin also earned the victory on the pitcher’s mound, too. He started the game, lasting three innings, striking out two while giving up just two runs.
In the biggest win Sunday against the Pirates – a 10-5 win in Game 2 of the doubleheader – the Junior Tritons were buoyed by a six-run third inning, and also scored two runs in each of the fifth and sixth frames.
Four Tritons had multi-hit efforts – leadoff hitter Liam Knight, shortstop Jakob Armitage, third baseman Rhys Folick and left-fielder Sam McPherson – and Knight also added a stolen base to his stat line.
Lukas Frers was the pitcher of record for the White Rock crew, earning the win to improve his regular-season pitching record to a sparkling 7-0, with 56 strikeouts in just 43.2 innings. He struck out six Pirates Sunday.
The junior team has no league games on the schedule for nearly two weeks, but will play in back-to-back weekend tournaments in both North Vancouver and Langley. They will next take to the field in BCPBL action July 12 when they travel to Abbotsford for a game against the Junior Cardinals. The following day, they’re in Whalley to battle the Chiefs, and 24 hours after that, will head to Delta for a tilt against the Blue Jays. White Rock wraps up its season July 18 with a road game against Whalley.
Considering they’ve sat at, or close to, the top of the league standings since April, Broatch said he’s reminded his group on a few occasions about the importance of not looking too far ahead, even if a league title is the ultimate goal.
“We’ve had a few conversations about focusing on the process. You need to remind them about what it takes to be a championship team,” he said. “We’re focused on today, and when we get closer (to playoffs) in a few weeks, we’ll be reminding the guys that (a playoff title) is what we’ve been aiming for.”