When their Vancouver Island rivals in Victoria and Duncan elected to consolidate in a AAA baseball league this year, the Campbell River Midget AA Tyees found themselves a team without a league — or an opponent — for the 2015 season.
So to help the players prepare for the provincial AA championships this month, a local men’s team jumped in to help.
“We played in a tournament in Kelowna, but otherwise we didn’t have anyone else to play against,” Tyees coach Stewart Dumont said. “The Seymour Services Rockies were good enough to play us a series of exhibition games in preparation for provincials.”
The test provided by the men’s team obviously helped out. The Tyees returned from the AA provincial tourney in Richmond with silver medals after advancing to the championship final before suffering a narrow, 2-1 loss to Pitt Meadows.
“We want to say thanks to those guys,” Dumont said of the Rockies. “They were great about helping us out.”
En route to the provincial final, the Tyees blanked Surrey 6-0, were edged 2-1 by Vancouver and overwhelmed Richmond 18-4 before moving on to the semifinals, where they got past Prince George to earn the championship berth.