The White Rock Junior Tritons picked a bad time to struggle on the baseball diamond, as the under-16 squad went winless in BC Junior Premier Baseball League playoffs last weekend in Whalley.
The Tritons, who were the seventh seed out of eight, opened the round-robin portion of the tournament with an 11-4 loss to the North Shore Junior Twins Thursday, and fell to 0-2 Friday after a 4-1 loss to the Abbotsford Junior Cardinals. Then, on Saturday, White Rock dropped a 6-1 decision to the Coquitlam Redlegs, and did not advance to the playoff rounds Sunday.
The BCJPBL championship was won by the Victoria Junior Mariners, who defeated Abbotsford 7-2 in the title game.
Against North Shore in the tournament opener, the Twins jumped out to an early lead after scoring seven runs in the bottom of the first inning, and though the Tritons battled back to score three in the third frame – Liam Rihela singled and scored, while Liam Ribata and Daniel Cassino each walked and came around to count – the Twins tacked on two more runs in the fourth and sixth innings, respectively, to win the game.
Friday’s game against Abby was much closer, with the score 1-0 Cardinals until they added three more in a big third inning. White Rock’s lone run came in the sixth inning, when catcher Dylan Yeager, who reached second base on an error and then stole third, scored when Griffin Hebert reached base – also on an error – one batter later.
Scott Doucet pitched six innings for the Tritons, striking out three while allowing four hits.
Saturday against the Redlegs, the Junior Tritons took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Joey Gladman hit a triple and then scored when Yeager, the next batter, grounded out to second base.
Brayden Bouchey, who also pitched against the Twins Thursday, was tagged with the loss, pitching three innnings, striking out six and allowing three runs on four hits.