The members of the Campbell River Bantam A Tyees have retruend from the Steve Murray All Star Tournement in Ridge Meadows last weekend with medals around their necks.
The Tyees opened with a dominant 13-1 win over the Ridge Meadows Royals.
Ethan Belanko, Tory Randle and David Klatt were all perfect at the plate scoring eight of the Tyee runs. Joe Frumento, Brayden Penn and David Klatt were dominant on the mound with Frumento earning the MVP from the Ridge Meadows coaches.
Game 2 was never really in doubt, either, but Kamloops played stingy defense. Randle remained hot at the plate as did Brandon Lambert. The Tyees scored four runs in the second inning and cruised to a 6-2 win. Marcus Cross, Bryce Idiens and Klatt combined for the win, with Idiens earning the MVP vote from Kamloops – with what the Kamloops coach called the best curveball he’d seen in quite some time.
Game 3 had the Tyees firing on all cylinders against Cloverdale. It was a total team effort with great defense.
Markus Cross had a three-run homer, and Klatt, Lambert, Frumento and Wyatt Dumont were all perfect at the plate. Lane Quinn had three RBI’s. Dumont only allowed one base runner through four innings earning MVP and Cam Vaughan came in to close out the 18-0 drubbing of the Spurs.
Game 4 against the White Rock Tritons turned out to be a pitchers duel. Frumento pitched six complete innings and Lambert had a three-run double and three outs of his own throwing runners out, earning the MVP. Brayden Penn came in to close out the 4-2 victory.
So the team was undefeated heading into the final on Sunday afternoon.
With 37 runs for only five against the Tyees were rolling, facing the host team, the Ridge Meadows Royals, whom they dominated in the opening game of the tournament.
Belanko had a double and Dumont smacked a two run single to give the Tyees an early 3-0 lead.
But the Royals were paced by excellent pitching that held down the Tyees. Cross also pitched great early on earning the MVP.
A back and forth game had the Tyees down 7-6 in the bottom of the 7th, Quinn singled with 2 outs to start a rally and Vaughan clutched up for the game tying single, and Randle singled setting the stage for drama.
The game was tied going in to extra innings, but Ridge Meadows pulled ahead and the Tyees ran out of magic.
The Tyees proudly bring home silver medals and will now host the zone playoffs here in Campbell River at Nunns Creek Park from July 27 to 29.