Chilliwack’s peewee AA Navy Cougars improved to 13-0 with five Easter weekend wins.
The Cougars hosted the Baden Tournament over three days, leading off with a 5-1 win over Victoria’s Triangle Athletic Association, highlighted by the lockdown pitching of Ryan Post.
Riley Ashley clubbed a three-run homerun in Chilliwack’s second game, a 6-2 drubbing of Vancouver Community. Ashley hit another towering shot in an 11-1 win over White Rock.
Lucas Dykstra also went deep in a game that was mercy-ruled after five innings.
The one-sided win landed the Cougars in the semi-final round where they dispatched Cloverdale.
Ashley delivered another homerun and Terek Luff banged out a clutch RBI single in a 2-0 triumph.
The final pitted Chilliwack against an unbeaten team from Penticton.
Luff and Carson Noskie were the run producers in a 9-4 championship game win.
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After bad weather wiped out a few games early in their schedule, the Chilliwack college-prep Cougars finally got some sunshine, and squeezed in two league games against the Township Blue Sox.
The Sox are a first-year team in the league hailing from Langley.
The Cougars out-slugged the newbies by a 10-8 count in the opener, but the pitching tightened up big-time in the rematch. Chilliwack’s starter, Mattias Klim, was locked in, leading his team to a 2-0 triumph.
Jackson Saunders led the offence with timely hits, driving in both Cougar runs.
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Weather has also messed with Chilliwack’s midget AAA team, which was unable to practice for two weeks.
A young team, the Cougars need all the practice they can get. In one early-season double-header against the South Fraser Giants, Chilliwack had just one Grade 12 player in their lineup while their opponents dressed eight.
Despite facing a signicant age/experience gap in most of their games, the Cougars have stayed competitive.
In a recent double-header against the Penticton Tigers, the Chilliwackians showed flashes of what they’re capable of.
In the opener, they dug themselves into an early hole, falling behind 14-0 after two innings.
But, from that point on they out-scored the Tigers 6-3.
In the rematch, Cougar pitcher Meka Quintana turned in a dominant start.
Base hits by Josiah Hansen and Dawson Peters followed by a run-scoring double by Cooper Loeppky had Chilliwack up 2-0 in the first inning.
Brycen Berg and Brad Rae hit back-to-back singles to start the third inning and back-to-back doubles by Loeppky and Quintana produced four runs.
Penticton scored four of their own in the fifth inning, but the Cougars led 7-4 heading into the seventh.
Things fell apart from there.
Despite a heroic diving try by Hansen in center field, the Tigers loaded the bases on three bloop singles, and Quintana’s 113th pitch of the day went over the fence for a grand-slam.
The final was 10-7.