White Rock Tritons made it to championship Sunday in the Langley Blaze Invitational (LBI) tournament after going 4-0 in round-robin play.
A marquee tournament for the British Columbia Premier Baseball Leagues's senior U18 teams, the five-day competition saw 21 teams from across the province and Western Canada play in 48 games June 5-9, many of which were played at South Surrey Athletic Park, as the Tritons co-hosted the tournament, along with Langley Blaze and Abbotsford Cardinals.
Senior Tritons head coach Tyler Lawson said the tournament went well.
'It was nice to have teams across the country around beautiful South Surrey Athletic Park and White Rock for three days," he said. "It always makes it easier when you get four days of sunshine!"
Tritons showed up in round-robin play the first four days, winning all four of their games: 7-3 over Victoria Mariners, 5-2 over Parkland Twins, 7-1 over Coquitlam Reds, and 7-6 over Calgary Bucks).
"The bats came alive and we had great pitching and defense as well. All of our games were packed with great energy. It was fun to play in that environment," Lawson said.
Sunday's championship semi-finals were played between White Rock Tritons and Langley Blaze first, then between Delta Blue Jays and Parksville Royals, with Langley winning 10-2 and Delta winning with a 5-1 score over Parksville to set up the Blaze vs. Blue Jays final.
Langley Blaze defeated Delta Blue Jays 6-2 in the championship game to claim the tournament title.
Lawson gave credit to Langley for their effort.
"They came ready to play. I just didn’t think we were ready to go from the first pitch, and unfortunately, we were chasing the game there on out," he said. "Lucky for us, we have a month until the playoffs, so we’ll take some lessons from the game and make adjustments down the stretch here."
Overall, the senior Tritons played some great baseball over the course of the competition, he noted.
"Tournaments are tough, but out of 21 teams across the country we got ourselves to the final four and unfortunately just didn’t have our best stuff when it mattered the most," said Lawson. "As a whole our team should take away a lot of confidence from the LBI. I thought we did a lot of things really well. We battled adversity in some of our pool games and found ways to win. We have lots of good lessons to take away and build on as we get back to our season."
With just over a month left and 15 games for the senior team to play, BCPBL standing are tight, he added.
'It should be an exciting finish for the playoff push. We have games on Saturday at (South Surrey Athletic Park) versus Parksville. I encourage the community to come out and support some quality high school baseball."
Senior Tritons play at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. this Saturday (June 15), while the White Rock Junior U16 Tritons play at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday June 18 at the park, located at 14600 20 Ave. in Surrey.
White Rock Bantam U15 Tritons' next home game is Thursday, June 13 at 6:30 p.m. at SSAP.
For more information, visit the Tritons' website.
