Three teams from the Salmon Arm Minor Baseball Association have qualified for the Provincial Championships.
The U15 Bantam team qualified for provincials in a best-of-five series played in Salmon Arm and Kamloops over the July 27-28 weekend, and both the PeeWee A and PeeWee AA qualified for provincials at their zone competitions.
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On Saturday, July 27 at Blackburn Park, the Bantam Hornets started off slow against the Kamloops River Dogs. The game picked up quickly though when the Hornets came back from four runs down to force extra innings and take the game to 8-7 in the bottom of the eighth.
The Hornets kept the momentum going in Game 2 and, that same afternoon, took a two-run lead into the top of the seventh before they opened the floodgates in the open inning and won the game 17-9.
The next day, the Hornets travelled to Kamloops and finished the series with a 17-3 victory and ensured their place at the provincial tournament.
Salmon Arm’s PeeWee AA team played in Vernon this weekend in zones. Teams from West Kelowna, Kelowna, Vernon, Kamloops and Salmon Arm competed in a four-game round-robin format.
The first game was a nail-biter against West Kelowna with a final score of 6-5 for Salmon Arm. Avery Deisroth’s home run was the go ahead run to win the game.
Next was a game played against Vernon on Saturday morning. It was a close one until Salmon Arm scored six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, which included a grand slam from Tate Spence. The final score was 14-6.
Next, the PeeWees faced Kelowna on Saturday evening. Salmon Arm didn’t waste any time and started the game with back-to-back home runs from Avery Deisroth and Tate Spence, followed by a double from Ethan Harrison and singles from Koen Koppel and Damon Golz. Salmon Arm beat Kelowna 12-1.
The final game was played Sunday afternoon against Kamloops and the hot bats continued and Salmon Arm won 13-2.
The PeeWee A team won their first game 18-5 versus the Kelowna Sun Devils.
Next was a game against a Penticton team that won 21-2. After that, it was back to face the Sun Devils where Hornets were victorious again, this time with a score of 17-16. Lastly, the Hornets faced the Penticton team once more. Again, Penticton took the lead and stayed there with the final score of 18-8.
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PeeWee A’s MVPs from the games were Carver Bara, Sawyer Mayes, Dawson Enright and Mikah Richmond.
The Provincial Championships for the Bantam Hornets will take place in Mission, on Aug. 7-11 and the PeeWee A and PeeWee AA start Thursday, August 1 in Comox.
@CameronJHT
Cameron.thomson@saobserver.net
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