A pair of White Rock-South Surrey baseball players helped guide Team BC to an undefeated record at the Continental Amateur Baseball Association U12 World Series in Sylvania, Ohio last month.
Sam Shoemaker and Dawson Gray, both members of WRSSBA’s peewee AAA team, were both on the provincial squad. They were selected to the team after tryouts were held earlier this summer throughout the province.
Three other Surrey players, Michael Moore, Rhys Cratty and Nicholas Phelan, were also part of the team.
In Ohio, Team BC went 8-0 in the 11-team U12 division, and knocked off the Wisconsin River Cats 11-3 in the championship game, held Saturday, July 28.
“We didn’t know what to expect before the tournament,” said Shoemaker. “But last year’s (Team BC) finished eighth, so we knew teams were pretty good.”
In the final, BC trailed 3-1 after three innings of play, but rallied to score one run in the fourth and eight in the fifth to take the lead. Shoemaker – who played shortstop, centre-field and pitcher for the provincial squad – singled and later scored in the fourth inning, to get the comeback started.
But as much as the championship win was a thrill, Shoemaker listed the team’s semifinal match – a 4-3 win over the Michigan Warriors – as his personal highlight of the tournament.
In that game, Shoemaker pitched in relief, entering the game with the bases loaded and zero outs, but struck out two Michigan batters and got another to ground out to help his squad escape with no runs against.