Sox win Lynden Mid-Summer Classic
July 21, 2008
The Red Sox headed to Lynden, Washington, July 19-20 for some U.S. competition at the Mid-Summer Classic tournament. After convincing wins on Saturday against South Sound (10-2) and Seattle Shockwave (11-2), the level of competition jumped up on day two. The morning game saw the Red Sox prevail over a solid Seattle Stars West Cascade team by a score of 8-3. The championship final opponents were the Milam Pro-Max Performers, a well coached and athletic ball club. The Sox won the tournament with 12-3 victory. A solid team effort all the way around, nice job!
Richmond takes first overall in Bantam AAA
July 15, 2008
The Red Sox finished the regular season by winning 10 games in 13 days to take first place overall in BC Minor's Bantam AAA division. Richmond finished the league schedule with a 32-4 record, the same as both Vancouver and Victoria, but the Sox take the title by allowing the fewest runs against. In 36 league games Richmond allowed only 89 runs against, the only team in AAA to allow less than 100 during the season.
BC Selects
June 21, 2008
Red Sox players Ryan Pidhaichuk and Vaughn Mabone received invitations to the BC Selects Provincial Camp, July 7-10, in Oliver, BC. For the first time Baseball BC has extended invitations to the top 15U players in the province in addition to the usual number of 17U invitees. Mabone and Pidhaichuk are two of only 10 current Bantam AAA players invited among the 30+ 15U invitees.
The camp is used as a selection process to choose the 17U BC Selects team that will represent the province at the national championship Canada Cup tournament in August. For the 15U players Baseball BC will use the camp to identify and evaluate future candidates for the 17U Selects program.
Congratulations also go out to former Red Sox players Carney Chamberlain (now with the Fraser Valley Chiefs), Tyler Tanabe, George Halim (North Shore Twins), and Tyson Popoff (North Delta Jr. Blue Jays), who have also received invitations to the 4-day camp.
BC Summer Games rosters announced
June 15, 2008
Congratulations to the 11 Richmond Red Sox players named to BC Summer Games rosters:
Zone 4: Brodie Burdeny, Ivan Chen, Cameron Frick, Hiro Imata, Brendan Michaloski, Ryan Pidhaichuk, Turner Popoff, Tanner Robertson, Brandon Minhas (alt)
Zone 5: Vaughn Mabone, Josh Boyer
Sox Capture Blizzard Wood Bat Title
May 21, 2008
The Red Sox went undefeated on the May long weekend, capturing the 7th Annual North Island Blizzard Wood Bat Tournament title.
Richmond opened the tournament with convincing wins over Mid Island (11-1), Central Island (11-5) and the host Blizzard (13-2). A 7-5 win over the PoCo Cardinals in the playoff round set up a showdown with the division leading Vancouver Mounties in the final.
One-hit pitching from Brendan Michaloski and Cameron Frick, errorless defense, and timely hitting from Ivan Chen, who knocked in four runs with a 2-run HR and a 2-out, 2-run double, carried the Sox to a 5-0 shutout win.
Chen took home Tournament MVP honors with an impressive weekend performance. He smacked three home runs and three doubles driving in 12 runs over the course of five games.
In Sunday's skill competition the Sox also took top honors in two of three events. The team baserunning relay was won by Sean Montgomery, Cody Pennock, Ryan Pidhaichuk, Tanner Robertson and Hiro Imata (who recorded the fastest individual time in tournament history). The home run derby was won by Cameron Frick who blasted eight long balls to take the title.
The title was the Red Sox second wood bat tournament win in the last year.
2007 Team Awards
October 15, 2007
The 2007 team awards were given out at the year-end team dinner. First of all a big thanks to this year's parent group who made the entire season run so smoothly. Field prep, stats, scorekeeping, finances, practice help, support at the games...the list goes on, a GREAT group to be involved with, from the coaches a big thank you.
Now for the hardware:
Top Pitcher: Sean Callegari
Top Batter: Tyson Popoff
Team MVP: Tyson Popoff
Rookie-of-the-Year (co-winners): Vaughn Mabone & Hiro Imata
10th Player Award: Brandon Minhas
Congratulations to all of our players on a very successful season, you worked very hard and got a taste of the rewards that come from dedication to the game.
2007 Season Review
September 1, 2007
The Red Sox finished 2-2 at the provincials, losing a tight must-win game 4-3 to Abbotsford. The loss allowed Abby to move on to the crossover and eliminated Richmond.
Although the season ended in disappointment, it was certainly successful in many, many ways. The Red Sox went 21-10-1 in league play, taking 4th place (out of 12 teams) in BC Minor's competitive Bantam AAA division.
Overall the club went 41-18-2, with a semi-final appearance at the Lyle Nestergard Tournament in Port Coquitlam, a second place finish at the Grip It and Rip It Tournament in East Wenatchee, Washington, and a first place title win at the Ronnie Crawford Memorial Wood Bat Tournament in Maple Ridge.
Individually five Red Sox players made Team BC PNC rosters and seven received invitations to the Arizona Fall Showcase tournament.
All in all it was a good year for our program. We look forward to putting the pieces together for another successful season in 2008.
Callegari picks up Western gold with Team BC
August 25, 2007
Pitcher Sean Callegari recently travelled to the Western Canadian Bantam Championships in Winnipeg as a pick-up with the provincial silver medalists, North Delta Astros. Team BC swept the tournament winning gold medals with Callegari earning a game MVP against Manitoba. Sean threw 5 shutout innings while going 3-for-3 at the plate. Well done!
Arizona Fall Showcase selections
August 25, 2007
Tyson Popoff, Brady Fainstein, Sean Callegari (2010) and Ryan Pidhaichuk, Hiro Imata, Cody Pennock and Josh Boyer (2011) all received invitations to the Arizona Fall Showcase tournament, October 27-29, in Phoenix, Arizona. All players will play for Team BC as members of the Minnesota Twins scout teams for 2010 and 2011. This is a high profile scouting event held at the San Diego Padres/Seattle Mariners spring training complex.
Callegari, Pidhaichuk selected all-tourney in Portland
August 25, 2007
Sean Callegari and Ryan Pidhaichuk were named to the All-Tournament Teams at this year's Pacific Northwest Championship event in Portland, Oregon. Both players had outstanding weekends against some of the best competition from Washington, Oregon, Utah and Idaho.
Red Sox players head to Portland for PNC
August 15, 2007
Sean Callegari, Tyson Popoff, Brady Fainstein, Vaughn Mabone, and Ryan Pidhaichuk all made PBL Team BC squads that recently participated in the Pacific Northwest Championship showcase event, held in Portland, Oregon. Teams representing BC in the 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 grad years competed against their counterparts from Idaho, Utah, Oregon and Washington in the annual tournament that brings together the top talent in the region.
Four former Red Sox players to Selects camp
June 28, 2007
Former Richmond Red Sox player Allen Rimer (2005), now a member of the White Rock Tritons of the BC Premier League, has received an invitation to attend the 17U BC Selects camp, July 9-12, in Oliver, BC.
30 of the best 17 & under players in the province attend the four-day camp to compete for the 18 roster spots on the team that will represent BC at the annual Canada Cup, Baseball Canada's premier event. This year's tournament will be held August 8-13 in Quebec City.
In addition, three former Red Sox players - Tyler Tanabe, George Halim (North Shore Jr Twins) and Carney Chamberlain (Fraser Valley Jr Chiefs) - have received invitations to the 16U BC Selects provincial camp, also held July 9-12 in Oliver.
This camp will determine the 18-player Team BC roster that will compete at the Western Canada Games in Edmonton, August 8-11. Tanabe, Halim and Chamberlain each spent two years (2005-2006) in our program.
Red Sox take 2nd Place at Grip It and Rip It
June 11, 2007
The Richmond Red Sox went 4-1-1 over the weekend taking second place at the 12-team "Grip It and Rip It" tournament in East Wenatchee, Washington.
The Red Sox - the only Canadian team entered - were undefeated (2-0-1) in pool play, finishing first in their division. Sunday's playoff action netted two more victories to push Richmond into the final, also played on Sunday.
In the final Richmond played the Kennewick Crushers, last season's 13U Hap Dumont World Series winners. The Sox beat Kennewick 8-7 in pool play, but playing the third game of the day took its toll. Afer two even innings the Crushers bats and deep pitching took over, final score 13-1.
All in all a great showing from the Sox. In our three 2007 tournament appearances we finished first (Ronnie Crawford Wood Bat), second (Wenatchee Grip It and Rip It) and made the final four (PoCo Nestergard Tourney). Well done!
Red Sox win Ronnie Crawford Wood Bat Tournament
May 25, 2007
The Richmond Red Sox gutted out two come-from-behind, extra-inning wins to claim the championship trophy at the Ridge Meadows Ronnie Crawford Wood Bat Tournament.
After going 2-1 in round robin play the Sox needed nine innings to beat Rutland 8-6 in a rain-soaked semi-final on Sunday. Trailing 6-4 going into the 7th inning Richmond plated two runs to force extra innings. The Sox then scored twice in the top of the ninth before holding on for the victory.
In Monday's final the Sox again needed extra innings to complete the job taking Abbotsford into extra time for the 3-2 win. Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the 7th, the Red Sox tied it before scoring the winner two innings later in the bottom of the 9th inning.
A job well done and a championship well deserved as the entire team played some excellent baseball over the weekend.
Chamberlain invited to Mizuno Junior Elite Camp
April 2, 2007
Former Richmond Red Sox catcher Carney Chamberlain (2005-2006) has been chosen to attend the annual Mizuno Junior Elite Baseball Camp, April 13-16 in Toronto. Chamberlain, now a member of the Fraser Valley Junior Chiefs of the BC Junior Premier League, will join 11 of the best 15-16 year old players in the province at the annual camp run by the Toronto Blue Jays and Baseball Canada.
The Mizuno camp brings the top under 17 talent from across the country together for four days of intensive workouts with both national team and Toronto Blue Jays coaches. The camp is an important part of Baseball Canada's talent identification process used to determine future provincial select teams and ultimately potential junior national team candidates.
Chamberlain spent two years in our program and we are proud of his accomplishment. Congratulations to Carney and the entire Chamberlain family!
2006 Season Review
November 1, 2006
The 2006 Richmond Red Sox finished the season 22-31-1 overall, with a 6th place finish in the highly competitive Bantam AAA division.
Our season ended with 2-2 performance at the Bantam AAA provincials, and a tough one-run loss against the eventual Western Tier provincial champion Ladner Nationals.
As a development program we saw much success this season. We had six players named to play in the BC Summer Games. Five players made the PBL Team BC Selects for the annual PNC Showcase tournament, this year held in Portland, Oregon.
Two players (George Halim and Carney Chamberlain) were picked up to go to the Baseball Canada National Championships with the Provincial Tier I champion Abbotsford Angels. Additionally both players were named to the BCPBL 2009 Scout Team that went to the Arizona Fall Classic showcase event in late October. That team went undefeated, winning the tournament championship.
10 of 12 graduating players moved on to higher levels of play, including George Halim, Mike Chow, Tyler Tanabe, Cam Foster (North Shore Twins, BCJPBL), Carney Chamberlain, Nick Karvelis (Fraser Valley Chiefs, BCJPBL), Taylor Kipnes, Chris Jang (White Rock Tritons, BCJPBL), and Ryan Mercer, David Clarke (Richmond Chuckers, Midget AAA).
Red Sox Lynden Fall Ball Champs!
September 25, 2006
The Richmond Red Sox capped off an undefeated weekend with a thrilling come-from-behind 6-5 win over the U15 Northwest Warriors to capture the Lynden Fall Ball Classic in Lynden, Washington.
The young Sox opened Saturday with an 8-1 win over Monroe, followed by an 8-4 victory over Moses Lake. Richmond then took the Lake Vikings by a score of 12-4 setting up the final with the older Warriors team.
The Red Sox battled to tie in the bottom of the sixth before scoring the game winner in the bottom of the seventh inning. A solid team effort all the way around.
2006 Team Awards
September 1, 2006
Top Pitcher: Tyler Tanabe
Top Batter: George Halim
Team MVP: Carney Chamberlain
Rookie-of-the-Year: Sean Callegari
10th Player Award: David Clarke