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Best record Jr. Bulldogs miss B.C. banner by one
By Tom Berridge, Burnaby Now sports
Best records do not always a provincial title make.
That was the difficult lesson learned by the Bunaby Bulldogs on the final day of the B.C. Junior Baseball Association tournament at Robert Burnaby Park.
With a perfect 4-0 record heading into the single-knockout championship round, the junior Bulldogs found themselves on the short end of a 5-4 loss to Kelowna after a season-ending five-run fifth inning Sunday.
"It was a tough day. _ You can say it's sour grapes, but some team is going to finish 3-3 and finish first in the province," said Burnaby head coach Tim Fehr. "In the sixth, we had the tying run on base with two out and couldn't do anything with it. It's tough for the kids and the coaching staff. We had high expectations."
The baby Bulldogs opened with a 13-0 win over league winner Kamloops Thursday.
In that game, Jason Wong's bases-loaded triple led off a 10-run second inning for the 'Dogs.
After Friday's rain out, Burnaby won all three of its games Saturday.
The Bulldogs started off with a 2-1 win over Prince George on Tyler Jefferson's game-winning RBI.
Burnaby then posted a 5-3 victory over the eventual provincial champion Delta Dodgers.
Richard Forbes got the win, while Coquitlam Reds call-up Rene Tosoni belted a grand slam dinger in the sixth for Burnaby.
In the later game, the Bulldogs squeaked past Victoria 7-6. Paul Granat highlighted a five-run first inning with a two-run single.
The 'Dogs scored two more in the third, one on a wild pitch and another on an error for the winning runs. Justin Lopthien recorded the win, with Tyler Haaheim getting the save.
In the semifinal, Burnaby scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth in a failed come-back bid.
Haaheim, Jefferson and Andy Gonzalez, who batted in one of the runs, all scored. Tosoni knocked in two of the runs on a bloop single.
"There is no doubt the program is headed in the right direction. The kids believe in it and the coaches believe in it, but it's tough to tell a bunch of 19- and 20-year-old kids whose season just ended that," Fehr added.
"I've rarely felt so bad about a loss for myself as I do for those kids today. They missed out on an opportunity by one run and that's disappointing."
Delta won the B.C.s 6-1 over Kelowna.
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