A split at home against Richmond last Saturday paved the way for the Gibsons Midget baseball team to secure a berth at this weekend's provincial championships in Ridge Meadows.
Gibsons finished the Midget AA summer season with a record of 11-7, which was good for a third place tie with Vancouver. Tsawwassen finished first with a record of 15-3 followed by Richmond at 13-5.
Gibsons heads into the provincials ranked third in the tournament out of 10 teams. The teams have been broken down into two pools with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the playoffs on Sunday. The top team in pool A will meet the second place team from pool B in one semifinal, while the top team in pool B plays the second place team from pool A in the other semifinal.
The winners of those two games then meet in the final Sunday afternoon.
Gibsons played Campbell River Thursday, Ladner and Richmond on Friday and Surrey-Delta today (Aug. 21) in pool play. All results were past Coast Reporter deadline, but check out next week's edition for a full re-cap from the tournament.
Prior to leaving for the tournament, coach John Moran said strong pitching and a consistent offensive attack would be keys to being successful.
"Pitching depth is the key because you have to manage the arms so we can get through six games," Moran said. "We also have to keep down the errors or we run the risk of wearing out our pitchers. I expect to be playing Sunday morning and the longer it goes, the better I think our chances are."
Gibsons had a good tune-up for the provincials playing a tough Richmond team last Saturday at Brothers Park. Gibsons came out flat in game one losing 6-3, but rebounded big time in game two, thumping Richmond 10-0 in five innings.
Jarrod Underwood pitched well in game one, working five innings while giving up only two earned runs. Warren Collins pitched the final two innings giving up one earned run.
Tony Dill provided three solid innings of pitching in game two, while Adam Windsor pitched the final two innings.
Offensively Dave Moran, Adam and Shaun Pepper hit .500 for the day. Dave scored four runs, Will Gye scored three and Rob McFarland scored twice.
Will had the big hit of the day with a solid triple to the gap in right field, which brought home a pair of runs.
