The first baseball title of the season came to the Coast courtesy of the Gibsons Red Tide.
The midget league team, sponsored by Coastal Tires, won the Scott Smith Memorial tournament in Ridge Meadows May 3.
Gibsons beat the host Royals 6-3 in extra innings in the final game to cap off a great weekend of tense, tight baseball.
Red Tide won all five of their games including a 9-4 decision over the Sechelt Athletics.
The Tide's pitching depth carried the team as they used seven different pitchers in the tournament.
EJ Nault led the way as he pitched in every game and hit a key home run in the final.
In the final, John Van Hof kept the team in the game by pitching three strong innings and giving up just a single run.
The Royals tied the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh, but in the top half of the eighth, Geoff Webb delivered the key hit, for Gibsons, a booming double to right centre that drove in Skyler Lagace and John with the go-ahead runs. Josh Pearl closed out the game on the mound and a diving catch in centre by Jason Chung sealed the deal.
In the semifinal, Geoff once again was the hitting hero. With the bases loaded he smashed a double deep to the outfield driving in
three in a game which the Tide won 6-5. Besides steady pitching, the team was helped out by outstanding work behind the plate with Andrew Baron and Tyler Nestman who picked off several base
runners for key outs.
The Athletics and the two Gibsons teams (Coastal Tires/Red Tide and Ken Mac) are playing in an interlock league with teams from Surrey, Newton, Ladner and Delta with the Coast teams winning its share of games. Midget games are being played at Ryan Dempster Field of Dreams on Sunday afternoons and Thursday evenings.
See the schedule at www.gibsonsminorbaseball.ca.
-Submitted
