Posted on June 5, 2012 by
Jason Bobbitt
The 4 Pacific International league teams that did battle at Elks Stadium this weekend we each in different stages of forming their summer teams and finding out what each player could do, and the results showed that.
The Kamloops Sun Devils fielded a veteran team, mostly over 21, and they were solid winning 3 of 4 games. The Langley Blaze also had all their veteran players here and only missing a few key rookies and they also went 3 – 1.
Trail is basically a senior team but they have brought in several younger players this year including 2 who played for Okanagan College this season, and the team was 1 – 3. The WCA Jays are basically the youngest team in the league, with only 4 over 21 years old players.
They are slowly getting to know each other and the difficult, more experienced competition they must face, but they have shown signs of being ready to break out. Their coaching staff are still finding out what each kid is capable of and that sometimes means leaving a starting pitcher in a game a bit longer than they should, or gambling a bit on the base paths to see which kids are quicker and which ones are smart base stealers.
The Jays were 1 – 3 but made their last game count the most knocking off the 3 – 0 Kamloops Sun Devils 16 – 8.
In their first game the Jays were shut out by Kamloops 7 – 0 not being able to solve Japanese pitcher Wataru Asaoka, an exchange student at TRU, who tossed a neat 1 hitter. The Jays were the victim of one bad inning giving up 4 runs in the 4th as starting pitcher Marcus Drewry, an OC pitcher, ran out of gas and wasn’t relieved in time.
He gave up 6 hits and 4 runs after a solid first 3 innings yielding only one hit and striking out 6. Asaoka had a no-hitter going until Tyler Enns singled with 2 out in the bottom of the 7th.
In the Jays 2 nd game they gave up 4 runs in the 3r inning and 3 in the 4th and just couldn’t get back in it. Starter Colton Lindsay was sharp in the first but tried to rely mainly on his fastball, rather than mixing his pitches and changing speeds, and the experienced Blaze hitters took full advantage pounding out 9 hits.
For Langley Brad Ferraro was 4 for 4, Jesse Peters was 2 for 4 with 3 rbi’s, and Dillon Reynolds was 2 for 3 with 4 rbi’s. For the Jays Jordan Varga was 2 for 2, scored 2 runs and had one rbi, Jared Johnson, Dom D’souza, and Jordan Devencenzi each had rbi’s.
In game 3, against a team they should beat, the Jays lost 3 – 2 to the Trail Orioles. Jays Dawson Newman hooked up with Trails’ Kyle Parsons in a pitchers duel which saw trail score the winning run in the 5th inning. Jays outhit Trail 9 – 5 but couldn’t get the big hit when needed, leaving the bases loaded twice and hitting into 2 double plays.
For the Jays Dallas Monk was 3 for 3 and both Tyler Enns and Jay Huggins had rbi’s.
WCA Jays left the best to the last pounding 5 Kamloops pitchers for 16 runs. They had 2 huge innings scoring 7 runs in both the 2nd and 6th innings, helped out by 8 walks and 8 hits. Thomas Bidszinski led the way going 3 for 3, plus 2 walks, and 3 rbi’s.
Dallas Monk scored 3 runs, and Jordan Devencenzi had 2 rbi’s. Starter Brad White, in his first start of the summer, pitched a good game into the 5th when he ran out of gas and gave way to newcomer Josh Makler. Kamloops scored 4 runs in the inning. Josh pitched well through the 8th and gave way to Mike Tongue who finished the game.
The Kelowna – Kamloops rivalry is alive and well whether it is hockey or baseball and of course whether its TRU/OC or Jays/Sun Devils.
Scores in other games were: Langley 8 Trail 2 Langley 4 Trail 0 Kamloops 7 Langley 0 Kamloops 10 Trail 5
One other highlight is there was a bench clearing altercation in the Kamloops vs. Trail game created by some hit by pitch batters (4) and a lot of chirping which led to the brawl. This was the first bench clearing brawl at Elks Stadium since 1995 when the Kelowna Grizzlies and Tacoma Timbers rumbled for over 15 minutes.
The West Coast Authentic Jays renew their rivalry with Kamloops on Wednesday night at Elks Stadium – 7:30 pm.
The WCA Jays head south for the weekend with double headers against the Seattle Studs and Burnaby Bulldogs.
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On July 27 West Coast Authentic had the privilege of attending the induction of five new members to the British Columbia Hockey Hall of Fame.
2004 Norris trophy winner and 2007 Conn Smythe trophy winner, was among the five inducted to the BC Hockey Hall of Fame Friday night.
During the event we were fortunate to meet up with the inductees for a chat and some photos.
