Chilliwack’s bantam AAA baseball Cougars traveled to Kamloops last weekend to compete in The Best of the West tournament.
The locals got outstanding pitching in game one. Aiden Henderson, Owen Zhou and Zach Zimmer combined on a seven-inning no hitter as the Cougars dumped the Lethbridge Bulls 6-0.
Lefty Jared Hall got the start in game two and pitched four solid innings, but the Chilliwack bats provided zero run support in an 8-0 defeat by the Okotoks Dawks Black.
Chilliwack bounced back in their final round-robin match, whomping the Calgary Longhorns 7-1 in game three led by Alijah-Paul Leiper’s three hits and four runs batted in. Aidan Saunders turned in a dominant pitching performance, striking out nine and walking just one in five innings. Wyatt Emery pitched the final two innings.
Finishing first in their pool, the Cougars entered playoffs as the fourth seed and faced the Fraser Valley Cardinals in a quarter-final.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good day for the Chilliwack pitchers, who walked 10 Cardinal batters in a 14-1 loss. The defence behind them was equally shaky, committing seven fielding errors and 10 of the Fraser Valley runs were unearned.
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April showers might bring May flowers, but but it also ends up causing baseball games to be cancelled. Chilliwack’s college prep U18 Cougars only squeezed one game in last week, hitting the road April 10 to beat the Richmond Chuckers 5-4.
The Cougars were supposed to host Central Okanagan in a pair of double headers April 13 and 14 at Fairfield Island, but all four games were rained out.