One of White Rock-South Surrey Baseball Association’s youngest teams capped off the summer ball season in style last month, with a tournament championship in North Delta.
The White Rock U8 Tritons went undefeated at the season-ending showdown – held July 20-23 – and capped their performance with a 12-1 win over Maple Ridge in the championship game.
The young squad opened the tournament with a 17-8 victory over Cloverdale White, and followed up with a 14-4 win over North Shore. The wins advanced the Semiahmoo Peninsula team into semifinals, where they defeated a second Cloverdale squad, Cloverdale Red, by a 12-0 margin, which set up the gold-medal tilt against Maple Ridge.
The team finished the summer-league schedule with an unblemished record – 13 wins and no losses.
“I was really impressed with how the boys played,” head coach Mark Finan told Peace Arch News.
“They’re understanding of the game at such a young age was very impressive… where to throw the baseball, when to run and not to run, but most of all, the ability to make plays on the field and get outs.
“The boys could really hit the baseball from the top of he lineup to the bottom.”
The tournament crown wasn’t the first for the Tritons. Back in July, the team won the second annual Henri Lorieau Memorial Tournment, which was held at White Rock’s Centennial Park.
In that event, White Rock overpowered the competition en route to the final game, where they beat Langley to claim top spot.
Lorieau, who passed away in November 2015 at the age of 62, was the president of WRSSBA from 1998 until 2005, and for years was the face of the association’s annual Mini-8 tournament. Before last year’s tournament, it was renamed in his honour.