Story and Photos by Christian J. Stewart

October 10, 2021, Kelowna, BC – Jordan Bond had a double, three-run home run and three-RBI triple to lead the Victoria Golden Tide to a come from behind 13-4 win over the Thompson Rivers University (TRU) Wolfpack Sunday morning in round robin play at the Canadian College Baseball Conference (CCBC) Fall Championship Tournament at Boucherie Field in West Kelowna.

Jordan Bond watches his three-run home run head toward the left field fence in the seventh innng.

The win moves the Tide record to 2-1 and vaults them into the Championship semi-finals at 4:00 pm Sunday where they will face the Okanagan College Coyotes at Elks Field.

The Tide dug themselves a bit of a hole against TRU early Sunday when starter Cameron Dunn struggled off the top and an error loaded the bases for TRU’s Matt Olsen who promptly put the ball over the leftfield fence to give the Wolfpack a 4-0 lead after half an inning of play.

Matt Olsen and his TRU team celebrate his first inning Grand Slam that gave the Wolfpack an early 4-0 lead.

Dunn would settle in nicely after that and in the bottom of the fourth, his offence would reward him, as Bond led the inning off with a double to the fence. The Wolfpack would then play some sloppy defence and suddenly the Tide had tied the game 4-4 with Bond’s hit being the only ball out of the infield.

Alex MacLauchlan would then stroke and RBI-single and the Tide took a 5-4 lead into the fifth inning.

Victoria starter Cameron Dunn, had a rough first inning, but the settled in nicely, pitching into the seventh inning and getting credit for the 13-4 win.

In the top of the seventh, after cruising nicely from the second inning on, Dunn found himself in trouble with TRU runners on first and second with just one out. He would be lifted in place of reliever Brett Paterson, who promptly induced an inning ending double-play ground ball and the Tide kept their 5-4 lead intact.

Victoria Will Podmoroff is congratulated after scoring for the Golden Tide.

That seemed to motivate the offence even more and in the bottom of the seventh, Brendan Morrison laced an RBI double down the third baseline to put Victoria up 6-4. After an intentional walk to Zeke Holt, Bond crushed his home run over the leftfield fence to extend the lead to 9-4.

the Golden Tide used some good defence Sunday, turning a number of double plays to get out of trouble against TRU.

Paterson kept the Wolfpack off the board in the top of the eighth and the Tide then continued their offensive roll, scoring once to go up 10-4 and then loading the bases for Bond, who then tripled to the fence in left-centre, clearing the bases and giving the Tide the 13-4 mercy rule win.

Victoria reliever Brett Paterson reacts after getting an inning-ending double play in the seventh to preserve a 5-4 lead over TRU.

The Tide now face the OC Coyotes in the semi-finals and with a win, can advance to the Championship finals at 12 Noon on Sunday.

In the other semi-final the Fraser Valley Cascades (the number one seed in Pool B) will take on the Prairie Baseball Academy who defeated Edmonton Collegiate 10-2 Sunday morning to advance. That game will go at 7:30 pm Sunday night.

Victoria’s Brendan Morrison strokes an RBI double down the third baseline against TRU.

Tide catcher Parker Harris would snag a great throw from Tyler Burton in centerfield to nail TRU baserunner Kiesten Evans in a key defensive play in the 8th inning.

The semi-finals and finals will be streamed via the OC Coyotes You Tube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/okanagancollegebaseball

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Story and Photos by Christian J. Stewart

October 9, 2021, Kelowna, BC – The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades took advantage of every mistake the Victoria Golden Tide made on Saturday morning to come away with a 4-1 win in the second game for both teams at the Canadian College Baseball Conference Fall Championship Tournament at Elks Field in Kelowna.

The Tide’s Brandon Green is all smiles after scoring what turned out to be Victoria’s only run in the second inning Saturday.

Of the Cascade’s four runs, all of them came as a result of Victoria errors, including two runs in the bottom of the first inning, following a two-out throwing error by third baseman Jordon Bond.  The overthrow to first led to one direct run and then an RBI single by Dylan Merritt gave the Cascades an early 2-0 lead.

Tide starter Ethan Dean would not allow an earned run, but would get tagged with the tough loss in the game against the Cascades.

The Tide got one of those runs back in the second inning and had a chance for more, but left the bases loaded in both the first and second innings to let the Cascades off the hook.

The Cascades would get another run in the third inning, this time thanks in part to an error by Tide first baseman Brendan Morrison that kept the inning alive and eventually allowed the Cascade’s Ryan West, who had singled, to score.

Victoria’s Jaxson Cordle slides safely into third base, beating the throw to UFV third baseman Ty Crowe.

In the seventh inning, the Cascades got an insurance run when Josh Berenbaum walked and then stole second. The throw sailed into centre field to give Berenbaum third base and when the ball went under the glove of the Tide’s Tyler Burton, who was backing up the play, Berenbaum kept going to extend the lead to 4-1.

The Cascade’s Sasha Kamenjasevic was brilliant in relief against the Tide, throwing five innings of scoreless relief and getting credit for the 4-1 win.

The Cascades were helped in their win by an impressive relief appearance from Sasha Kamenjasevic, who took over from starter Carter Harbut with two outs and the bases loaded in the second.

Kamenjasevic proceeded to strike out Tide slugger Zeke Holt to end that threat and then put up goose eggs for the next five innings, before being replaced by closer Evan Petersen who struck out five of the six batters he faced to close out the 4-1 win.

The Tide’s Brandon Green twists a double play, one of two the Tide turned on the day.

The Victoria errors overshadowed a decent outing from Victoria starter Ethan Dean who went four full innings, giving up four hits – the Cascade’s only four hits of the day – and two walks and was tagged with the tough loss, despite not giving up an earned run.

Tide pitcher Haldon Craig delivers a pitch against Fraser Valley on Saturday.

Nate Horricks and Haldon Craig were also effective in relief throwing a pair of innings each, striking out six combined in those four innings of work.

For the Tide offensively, they only mustered two hits on the day from Burton and Alex MacLauchlan, with a large part of their offensive threat coming from six hit batters and four walks surrendered by Cascade pitchers.

With a group of Cascade’e eagerly watching, Tide catcher Ryan Whelan awaits a throw to the plate during action in Saturday’s 4-1 UFV win.

With the win, the Cascades improve their record to 2-0 and they can guarantee their spot in the semis with a win over Calgary in their final round robin game at 12:15 pm on Sunday.

For the Tide, the math is simple.  A win over Thompson Rivers in the final round robin game Sunday morning at 9:15 am should mean a trip to the semi-finals later that day.  A loss and they will be relegated to one of the consolation games on Monday morning.

The Cascade outfielders celebrate their 4-1 win over Victoria on Saturday.

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Golden Tide victorious in first game at CCBC Fall Championships

Story and Photos by Christian J. Stewart

October 8, 2021, Kelowna, BC – Brady Wilson pitched a complete-game three-hitter and four different player had multi-hit games, as the Victoria Golden Tide defeated the University of Calgary Dino’s 10-1 Friday evening in the first game for both teams at the Canadian College Baseball Conference Fall Championships at Elks Field in Kelowna.

Brady Wilson was stellar on the mound Friday, throwing a 7-innng complete game three-hitter against Calgary, striking out eight and walking just two.

Wilson was simply spectacular on the night, facing the minimum number of 12 batters through the first four innings. He did give up his first hit in the third inning, but then promptly picked the runner off first to keep that inning clean.

Brendan Morrison had three hits, including a three-RBI double to lead the Tide in their 10-1 win over Calgary on Friday.

The only other inning that Wilson allowed any base runners is when Calgary scored their only run in the fifth and again in the seventh when they loaded the bases, but could not score.

In the end, Wilson allowed the one Calgary run on just the three hits, while walking two and striking out eight.

The Tide’s Austin Gurney, who reached base four times Friday, is congratulated after scoring one of his two runs against Calgary.

Wilson got all the offensive support he would need when the Tide took advantage of a shaky Calgary starter Ethan Bromley, and exploded for five hits and five runs in the top of the second inning.

Bryce Carroll would get the Tide scoring started with an RBI on an infield single, and that would be followed by another run when Will Podmoroff reached on an error and then two more on an Alex MacLauchlan two-RBI single. Brady Alexandre would then cap the inning off with an infield single of his own.

Alex MacLauchlin would have a pair of hits, a walk and two RBI in the 10-1 win over Calgary on Friday.

The Tide would add four more runs in the top the fourth, the big blow being a bases loaded double by Brendan Morrison that would score three and put the game out of reach.

Tide shortstop Brandon Green makes a play against Calgary Friday.

Morrison would be the hitting star for the Tide on the night, finishing with three hits and three RBI to lead the 10-hit attack. MacLauchlan, Austin Gurney and Alexandre would also have two-hit evenings and score a pair of runs each, while Gurney also walked twice to reach base on all four of his plate appearances.

Brody Alexandre strokes one of his two hits against Calgary on Friday night. He would also finish with a pair of RBI and runs scored.

Next up for the Tide are the University of Fraser Valley Cascades, in a Saturday morning game at 9:00 am. The Tide and UFV played recently in Victoria in a lively series that saw the Cascades win game one and the second game end in a 5-5 tie.

The Tide’s Brandon Green slides safely into second ahead of the throw to Dino’s shortstop Marcus Coderre (26)

After that, the Tide face Thompson Rivers at 9:15 am Sunday and then hope to finish first or second in their pool and play in the semi-finals later that day.

In other CCBC action Friday, UFV defeated TRU 8-0, while Edmonton Collegiate defeated Vancouver Island 1-0. Okanagan College was leading the Prairie Baseball Academy 5-4 in the sixth inning of their game in progress at press time.

Tide catcher Bryce Carroll (left) congratulates pitcher Brady Wilson at the end of Friday’s 10-1 win over Calgary.

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