Chilliwack’s peewee AA baseball Navy Cougars capped off their spring season with a championship, downing Cloverdale last Saturday at Fairfield Island. Chilliwack started their playoff chase with a Thursday night semi-final, hosting Abbotsford Red.
Abbotsford led early, but the Cougars roared back with a six-run fourth inning.
Pitchers Riley Kwak, Ryan Post and Colton Marshall shut down the Abby bats in the late innings, and the defence behind them was excellent as Chilliwack cruised to a 13-8 win. That set up the Saturday final, a fitting matchup of the top two teams in the regular season.
Cloverdale Black finished first, with Chilliwack right behind them.
Chilliwack led 4-1 through four innings and held on for a 7-5 win behind the pitching of starter Marshall and reliever Lucas Dykstra.
In addition to the league championship, the Cougars also won the Aldergrove Ice Breaker Tournament and their own Baden Classic tournament this season.
Other members of the team are Carson Noske, Riley Ashley, Terek Luff, Alex Rezka, Kahn Dhaliwal, Tej Dhaliwal and Kolton Corbett. The coaches are Gord Dykstra, Jason Noske and Cody Kwak.
The Cougars will now play summer baseball at the peewee AAA level, competing with top teams from Vancouver Island to the Interior.
They’ll be trying to qualify for the provincial championships with the possibility of moving on to nationals in Quebec.
For more info on local baseball, see chilliwackminorbaseball.com or facebook.com/ChilliwackMinorBaseballAssociation/