Story and Photos by Christian J. Stewart

October 10, 2021, Kelowna, BC – The new kids on the Canadian College Baseball Conference (CCBC) block, the Victoria Golden Tide, battled hard, but eventually dropped an 11-5 decision to the Okanagan College (OC) Coyotes in semi-final action Sunday night at the CCBC Fall Championship Tournament at Elks Field in Kelowna.

Tide starting pitcher Triston Seitz would have a tough first inning, but then settle down to hold the Coyotes scoreless in the rest of his five inning outing Sunday.

The scrappy Tide, who earlier in the day ousted Thompson Rivers from the tournament with a 13-4 win, actually took a 5-4 lead into the bottom half of the seventh inning against the Coyotes,  but then ran out of gas, and watched as the host squad would score two in the bottom of the seventh and another five in the bottom of the eighth to cruise to what appeared to be an easy win.

Victoria second baseman Alex MacLauchlan looks for the call but doesn’t get it as the OC’s Ryan Doucette slides in safely on this play.

That was anything but the case, as the tide battled back from an early 3-0 deficit with two runs in the third and another in the fourth to tie the game and then after Okanagan plated a run in the bottom of the sixth to re-take the lead, the Tide scored another two in the top of the seventh to vault into a 5-4 lead.

Coyote third baseman Nolan Rivard prepares to throw over the head of pitcher Adam Sarafinchin on a ground ball from the Tide’s Will Podmoroff.

The Tide would also outhit the Coyotes 8-5 on the day, but seven Victoria errors, combined with 12 passed balls and five wild pitches, would be the ultimate undoing for Victoria, as the Coyotes scored five of their final seven runs, including the tying and go-ahead runs in the seventh, courtesy of passed balls and wild pitches.

Victoria’s Tyler Burton (12) is congratulated by Jordan Bond (33) after scoring a run for the Tide.

McCoy Pearce, who had an RBI single as part of a Coyotes three-run first inning, would be the offensive catalyst for OC, finishing with three hits, including a triple, two RBI and a pair of runs scored. Nolan King would also have a hit, two walks and a pair of runs scored.

The Tides’ Brendan Morrison would get around the tag of Coyotes catcher Caleb Lumbard to score one of Victoria’s runs Sunday evening.

For Victoria, leadoff hitter Tyler Burton led the way with a pair of singles, a walk and two runs scored,  while Brendan Morrison continued his hot streak with a hit and pair of RBI.  Will Podmoroff also had a single, walk and run scored in the losing effort.

Victoria’s Zeke Holt slides into third safely under the tag of Coyotes third baseman Nolan Rivard.

On the mound OC’s Aiden Mordecai gets the win in relief of starter Adam Sarafinchin.  Jesse Poniewozik pitched the ninth inning to close out the win.

For the Tide, starter Triston Seitz would settle down after a tough first inning and not allow another run after that in his five innings of work, walking five and striking out six.  Nick Lee, who pitched 1.2 innings in relief gets tagged with the loss, while Wyatt Mohr-Royer and Ben Havelock also saw work on the hill.

The Tide’s Will Podmoroff gets high fives after scoring against Okanagan College Sunday evening.

The Coyotes will now move on to the finals at 12 Noon on Monday where they will play the winner of the game between the Prairie Baseball Academy and the University of the Fraser Valley.  That game was in progress at press time with PBA leading UFV 1-0 in the fourth inning.

Victoria shortstop Brandon Green makes a throw to first during Sunday’s game.

The Tide will now head home to Victoria and continue their fall season this Saturday, October 16th, with a Black vs Gold intersquad doubleheader and then Sunday, the top college baseball program in Canada, the UBC Thunderbirds come to town for a pair.

Victoria’s Chase Thompson celebrates after scoring the tying run in the seventh inning of Sunday’s game.

All games Saturday and Sunday will be at Wilson’s Group Stadium with both doubleheaders scheduled to start at 1:00 pm.  Tickets are $5.00 and $10.00 and will be available at the gate. Children 12 and under get in free!

Victoria’s Tyler Burton slides home safely with what would be the go-ahead run in the seventh inning Sunday.

The Coyotes celebrate their 11-4 semi-final win over Victoria.

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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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