Playing in the season's first ball tournament, the New Westminster Little League Major A Twins unexpectedly triumphed in the Don Sheard Wooden Bat Tournament held from April 6 to 9 at Trout Lake in Vancouver. The team of 10 to 12 year olds finished with a record of 4-1, defeating perennial powerhouse Hastings 10-9 in an exciting final.
The Twins started out by splitting a doubleheader on Saturday. In the first game, they were able to hang on and take the host Trout Lake Blue Jays by a score of 6-5, behind Jordan Knight's home run and strong pitching from Aidan Tomalty, Alex Lazecki and Alan Chang. Game MVP for the Twins was Jordan Beatty.
Another team of Blue Jays, from Forest Hills in North Vancouver, jumped on the Twins early and hung on enroute to a 7-3 victory in the afternoon game. The Twins play in the field was quite sloppy and contributed to the loss, despite good pitching performances from Justin Adamoski, Liam Bates, Beatty, Max Yuen and Alan Chang. Game MVP of the game went to slugger Alan Chang.
On Sunday, the Twins were victorious 9-3 in their must-win game against the Dunbar Tigers. The team's bats came alive and every player on the roster got on base during the game. Nick Young slugged two doubles while Jacob Hamm also contributed a two-bagger for New Westminster. Singles came from Tomalty, Lazecki, Adamoski, Chang and Ryan Bailey. Pitching duties were shared by Tomalty, Lazecki, Adamoski, Bates and Twins game MVP Nick Young.
Monday's semi-final game against South Vancouver Red Sox was extremely well played by both sides. New Westminster was able to win the game 4-1 behind Chang's monster home run and stellar pitching from six different Twins pitchers, who combined to allow only two hits on the day. Those pitchers included Tomalty, Lazecki, Bates, Yuen, Adamoski and Chang. The Twins managed only five hits themselves, with Chang's homer accompanied by two singles from Lazecki, and one hit each from Adamoski and Bailey. Alan Salas made a great play for the Twins, making a difficult catch in the field with runners on base to prevent further damage. Game MVP went to pitcher Adamoski.
Tuesday's final was played in a constant drizzle that led to damp and wet conditions for the players. New West showed great resilience after being down by three runs twice in the game to battle back and claim the gold medal game against Hastings White Sox by a single run, with Bates scoring the winning run on a fielder's choice RBI by call-up William Yang. Combining on the mound to hold down the White Sox were Adamoski, Lazecki, Yuen and Chang as the closer. Chang also continued his hot hitting ways by hitting a first-inning home run with Lazecki aboard to give the Twins a quick 2-0 lead. Other key hits were provided by Bates with a double, Jacob Hamm with a two-RBI double, Bailey, Lazecki and Tomalty with singles. Bates also made a great play as catcher with a sweeping tag to nullify a potential Hastings run late in the game. Game MVP for the Twins was shortstop/pitcher Alex Lazecki.
The team was managed by Dave Adamoski with assistants Stanley Yuen, Rick Bates and Casey Lazecki. New Westminster Little League has their opening Day ceremonies scheduled for Justin Morneau Filed this Saturday, April 13 at noon.
