The score didn’t tell the whole story.
The New Westminster Majors All Stars season came to a halt last week in a 20-8 defeat at the hands of the eventual Little League B.C. provincial champion Whalley Chiefs.
While the scoreboard said domination, there was also a lot of fierce battle and pushback from the underdog New West lineup, which opened the scoring in the semifinal game.
And when they trailed 10-1 half an inning later, there was no quit.
The All Stars battled back with four runs in the second and three in the third to make it 11-8. Big hits in the rally included Quinn Walters’ three-run homer and Brendan Tong’s three RBI.
But Whalley, which would go on to take the B.C. title with a 3-1 win over Trail and surrendered just seven runs total in its other games, continued to answer any New West run and eventually pulled away.
To get to the semifinal, New West erased a 1-3 round-robin start with back-to-back wins, topping North Vancouver District 6-5 and Beacon Hill 12-2. The win over North Van was a comeback effort, where Jalen Sami delivered the key blow, a walk-off double in the bottom of the sixth inning. Their other win was 11-3 over Kerrisdale.
It was a long run and the seven games in eight days took its toll on the 11-12 year old crew, which was the youngest team in the tournament – anchored by seven 11 year olds.
New West was making its second straight provincial tournament, after successfully defending its District 6 title.
To win the district, New West trumped South Vancouver 14-1 in five innings, led by a two-run HR from Sami in the first inning that set the tone. Taiki Suzuki pitched a complete-game four hitter. In the win, Cole Crozier and Walters each cleared the base paths with three-run doubles.
New West’s lineup includes Jordan Beauregard, Matthew Birovchak, Cole Crozier, Eugene Fei, Ben Hewitt, Brian Lai, Zachary Mankoo, Brendan Morrison, Jalen Sami, Taiki Suzuki, Brendan Tong, Quinn Walters and Ty Woodard.
