The White Rock All-Stars will play for a Canadian Little League championship on Saturday.
On Friday morning, the hard-hitting crew of 11- and 12-year-olds from the Semiahmoo Peninsula punched their ticket to the national championship game with a 6-0 shutout win over the Alberta champions from Lethbridge.
White Rock – which advanced to semifinals after finishing the round-robin portion of the Medicine Hat tournament undefeated – did most of their damage against Lethbridge in the third inning. The B.C. champs strung together four hits which combined with a Lethbridge error to result in four runs coming across the plate.
White Rock added to the lead with a single run in the next inning, and then one tacked on one more in the sixth en route to the shutout win.
Pitcher Chase Marshall – who has been at or near the top of the tournament’s pitching leaderboard – was nearly unhittable, allowing just a single hit in six innings, while striking out 12.
Lachlan Scardina led the offensive charge for White Rock, with three hits, and Reid Hefflick had two.
Saturday’s final game will be a rematch of Wednesday’s round-robin contest, which saw White Rock edge Quebec’s Mirabel Baseball Academy.
Mirabel defeated the Port Arthur Nationals 8-5 in the other semifinal game.
The championship game begins at 10 a.m. Pacific Time and will be broadcast on CBC. It can also be viewed online here.