The chance at a three-peat national baseball championship is alive for the Delta Blue Jays.
Delta punched their ticket to baseball’s 15U Ray Carter Cup Aug. 22 to 25 in Laval with an 8-3 win over the Victoria Eagles at the final four Bantam AAA Provincial Championship in Chilliwack last Saturday (Aug. 3).
Earlier in the day, the Jays defeated the Abbotsford Cardinals 8-5 in one semifinal while the Eagles beat the Ridge Meadows Royals in the other semifinal.
The Jays were up 4-0 against Abbotsford, who tied the game, but the Jays pulled ahead in the end.
Against the Eagles, Delta was down 3-1, but scored six in the fifth inning thanks to a two-run triple and a two-run home run.
“We’re thrilled. The offence came alive. We played two great games,” said head coach Cam Frick. “Back-and-forth games…it was an amazing day.”
This is the Jays fourth trip to the nationals and it’s third in a row after the tournament was not held in 2020/21 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each team has been different, but also has had many similarities according to Frick.
“Our first trip was 2019 and I’ve always said that was the best team we’ve ever had – lot of great pitching, defence and lots of contributions defensively. We ended up second that year losing to Ontario in the final,” he said. “I think this year’s team is very similar to that team…we’re young…we have a lot of first year guys who contribute. We don’t have a set starting nine. If they are hot, they’re in the line-up and they can contribute. Our pitching is outstanding, just a complete team this year.”
Delta won the regular season league title clinching that a few weeks ago.
They went into the league playoffs as the top seed, winning their first three games only to lose to Victoria in the semifinal. Victoria went onto win the league playoff championship.
Frick said that loss provided some extra motivation for the team.
“We didn’t play our best at the league tournament, but we rolled on all cylinders last weekend,” he said. “It helped us that we came back from Victoria disappointed. It was motivation for us. It’s a long season, it’s tough to play great the entire year. There is always a bit of a letdown, so I was happy that was last weekend and not this weekend.”
After taking a few days off, the Jays will start to prepare for nationals.
“I haven’t had August off in a long time, but I’m okay with that,” he said. “We’re thrilled. Montreal is such a great city. We have six guys returning, but the other 10 guys haven’t been to Montreal so the whole experience of checking out the city, the culture and the food. They put on a great tournament, so I’m just thrilled for the kids to get this experience.”
The Jays roster includes Alex Tamayo, Caleb Miller, Cole Hudie, Colin Skelly, Drew Sochting, Hayden Mangat, Jaxxon Lawrence, Kane LaPorte, Kesler Curtis, Lucas Yu, Mason Dubnov, Nico Yau, Noah Wegner, Reece Abbott, Toby Wilding and Yohta Suzuki. Coaches - Cam Frick, Tim Frick, Joseph O’Krafka, Doug Miller, Quinn Betteridge, Ford Marcotte, Tommy Richards, Dave Empey.
