The regular season of the Gibsons Men's Alumni Baseball League ended on June 13 when Coastal Tire came up against tough pitching by Gibsons Jays' Cody Upson and Nathan Petzold in a 14-2 game. Upson and Petzold also contributed two RBIs each. Trevor Nicholson was a defensive standout for Coastal, making seven outs including an unassisted double play.
The playoffs opened Sunday, June 15, when Coastal came back to defeat the Jays 7-5, with a strong seven inning performance by Andrew Baron on the mound. Helping on offence was Trevor Nicholson, who went three for four and Nick Biden who went two for three. The Jays threatened in the sixth and seventh innings with doubles by Dave Gonzaga and Joe Ling, but came up short when Tyler Nestman's left field catch ended the game.
The second Sunday match-up ended with the mercy rule when the Gibsons Royals, with Adam Windsor on the mound, defeated Norris Oil 13-3.
Monday night the Jays eliminated Norris Oil from the playoffs with a 5-1 win.
Jays' pitcher Jesse Dill threw seven innings with nine strike-outs and came up big offensively with a single, a double and a stand up triple and two RBIs.
Danny Baker went three for four, and Eric Lehman and Joe Ling contributed RBIs with their sacrifice fly balls. For Norris Oil, Brandon Stach had a strong seven inning outing on the mound. Stach, Garret Norris and Cody Robinson threatened with base hits, and Ben Newman took away the shut-out in the seventh, scoring after his single and stolen bases. On Tuesday night, Ryan Dempster Cubs pitcher Travis Dempster was on the mound at the exact same time as his brother Ryan was on the mound for Chicago, but Travis came away with the win, and Ryan got no decision. Home plate ump Ron Baba called it the best played game of the season. Russell Thornsteinsson was outstanding in his pitching role for Coastal, going the full game and fooling the usually heavy-hitting Cubs with his off speed pitches and knuckleball. Russell also contributed a first inning RBI. Coastal had a 2-1 lead for most of the game until Dave Moran's two-out sixth inning double, giving the Cubs a 3-2 lead.
Coastal's Dayton Moore singled in the seventh, but a great double play by Adam Gibson and Tyler Craig ended the rally and the final score remained 3-2 for the Cubs.
The playoffs continue this weekend with the semifinals at 5:30 p.m. Saturday night at Ryan Dempster Field, with the championship final on Sunday at 5:30 p.m.
