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Chilliwack Cougars win first place showdown with Cloverdale Nationals

The Rep Report is a weekly look at how Chilliwack Minor Baseball’s top teams are doing.
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The Chilliwack College Prep Cougars had a busy and successful week, recording five wins in five games.

The locals started with a 2-0 rain-soaked home-field win over the Cloverdale Nationals in a game that featured the league’s top two teams.

Great pitching from Zach Klim and Brendan Goldsworthy kept the Nats at bay.

The Cougars moved on to host the North Langley Blue Sox, winning 6-2 and 3-2.

Riley Smith clubbed two doubles and a triple in the opener and pitchers Evan Finnie and Matthias Klim shut down the Blue Sox bats.

Josh Siemens got the start in the second game, going five strong innings.

The Cougars wrapped up the week with a trip to Kelowna where they whomped the Sun Devils 14-1 and 6-1.

Conall Sexton pitched a complete game gem in the opener.

Riley and Noah Zimmer both had a couple of hits and Siemens went four for five with three runs batted in.

Zach Klim and Finnie pitched their team to victory in the rematch, with Riley and Saunders bashing home runs.

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The midget AAA Cougars jammed seven games into eight days, facing some tough foes.

The locals started off with two losses in a double header versus Nanaimo. Brycen Berg was solid on the mound and Josiah Hansen scored a run off an RBI single from Brad Rae.

Moving on to face the first place North Fraser Nationals, pitcher Malakhi Crozier held them to one run over four innings. But the Chilliwack bats were held to two hits (by Finn McCool and Cooper Loeppky) and no runs.

Berg was back on the bump against the Cloverdale Spurs, and kept them guessing with off-speed pitches. The Cougars had the game tied 4-4 through four innings with Loeppky, Crozier, Hansen, Berg and Tyler McInnes doing the damage. Singles from Loeppky and Hansen and a double by Frank Coholan had the Cougars leading 5-4 in the fifth, but a late rally carried the Spurs to an 8-7 win and they took the back half of a double header 8-0.

Chilliwack finished the week with two games against the Ridge Meadows Royals. Blaise Melnuk pitched four spotless innings in the opener, and a Hansen run scored off a Berg base hit had Chilliwack up 1-0. They led 2-1 through five innings after Hansen drove in Melnuk, but another late rally sunk them as the Royals plated three in the seventh inning for a 4-2 win.

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The bantam AA Cougars started their week with a double header at Fairfield Island versus West Kelowna.

Brady Merritt, Quinn Hennessy and Zach Cavanagh were on-base machines in the opener, but the final score was 8-5 for the visitors.

Chilliwack rebounded to win the rematch 7-2 behind solid pitching from Carter Larson and Jackson Parr. Zach Wolter and CJ Robison had pinch-hit RBIs and Hari Dhaliwal legged out a triple and a double.

Chilliwack went on to drop both halves of a double header against North Van, by scores of 7-6 and 8-4.

Trevor VanderHoek pitched four strong innings in the opener, and chipped in with two hits as well. Daxton VanderKooi added three hits and two RBIs. Kaydin Corbett and Lucas Fellner both reached base twice in the rematch.

In their first game of the summer season, Chilliwack’s peewee AAA Cougars earned a 7-5 road win at Vancouver.

An RBI single by Terek Luff got things rolling for the Cougars, but they trailed 4-2 in the sixth inning.

Chilliwack roared back in the seventh inning, producing five runs.

Pitcher Riley Kwak threw 82 pitches over six innings before giving the ball to Lucas Dykstra to close out the victory.

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The peewee AA Cougars started their summer season with a loss to Tri-City, but rebounded with an 11-7 win over Vancouver.

Trailing 4-0 in the fourth inning, the locals started to rally when Connor Charest drew a lead-off walk. Charest came around to score on an Eli Robinson single to left-center field.

Carter Rushton led off the fifth inning with a bunt and eventually stole home to get Chilliwack within two.

The Cougars broke through with a massive nine-run sixth inning that included two squeeze plays and hits from Ian Vandenpol, Robinson (double), Julin Giesbrecht, Reid O’Brien, Matthew Chater, Austin Janzen and Rushton.

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The Chilliwack Cougarettes traveled to Surrey last weekend to compete in the Baseball B.C. All-Girls Jamboree.

Comprised of female baseball players ages 10-12, the Cougarettes took on Vancouver and Team Lower Mainland and recorded two wins.

“The sportsmanship, positive attitude and pure enjoyment these young ladies exhibited proves girl’s baseball is alive and well in Chilliwack,” said coach Jason Emery.

Team members areFaith Harding, Kamryn Dyck, Emme Bartell, Kailyn Guenther, Ziairah Pleasants, Maggie Hahn, Vanessa Fairbourne, Payton O’Brien, Madeleine Groves and Eva Osell.

Emery is helped by co-coaches Sean O’Brien and Sheldon Hahn.



Eric Welsh

About the Author: Eric Welsh

I joined the Chilliwack Progress in 2007, originally hired as a sports reporter.
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