Mounties Protect Our House!

It took 16 innings, but the Vancouver Mounties swept their home opening double header over a pesky North Island Royals Team.  The Mounties won the first game by a 10 - 2 margin.  Winning 5 - 4 in the 2nd game, North Island fought back and tied the game up in the top of the 7th.  Both teams had opportunities to score in the extra innings but the game stayed tied and ended in dramatic fashion when Currie crushed a walk off 2 run homer in the bottom of the 9th inning to end the game sending North Island scurrying back to Horseshoe bay to try to catch the 7:00 pm ferry.

Game One: Mounties 10 North Island 2

In the first game Gee set the tone by striking out the side in the top of the 1st, christening Nanaimo Park the Mounties' new home.  The offence did their part in the bottom half plating 3 runs, aided by doubles from Ensing and Tintero.  The Mounties added another run in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Quito doubled to knock in Gee.  The Mounties were unfortunate not to put up more with the inning ending abruptly after Hogan hit a laser to the 3rd baseman with the bases loaded which doubled up a hung up Quito.  The Mounties led 4 - 0 after 2 innings.

North Island finally got to the Mounties starter Gee, scoring 2 in the top of the 3rd inning to cut the Mounties lead in half.  The Mounties answered with 1 in the bottom of the inning.  With 2 outs Kingsbury lined to centre field, stole 2nd and Gee, after going down 0 - 2, battled his way back into the count lining to left field to score Kingsbury which extended the Mountie lead to 5 - 2 after 3 complete innings.

In the top of the 4th Gee struck out the first 2 batters then gave way to Ensing who finished the inning with 1 pitch.  The Mounties added another run in the bottom of the 4th with a 2 out single by Younan to cash in Ensing and re-establish their 4 run lead.

The score stayed that way until bottom of the 6th.  Sebben started things off with a rocket to left field and the Mounties were off to the races scoring 4 runs breaking the game wide open, highlighted by Quito's RBI triple.  Ensing took care of business in the top of the 7th to close out the victory.  Final Score Mounties 10 - North Island 2.

Gee picked up the win going 3 2/3 innings of 2 run (1 earned) ball. Gee gave up 4 hits, walked 1, hit 1 while striking out 7 Royals hitters.  Ensing finished things off going 3 1/3 innings of perfect baseball, not allowed a baserunner during his tenure on the mound while striking out 2 batters.  Offensively, Quito, Ensing, Tintero, and Kingsbury all had multi hit efforts at the dish.  Quito led all mounties with 2 RBIs while Ensing scored 3 times.

Game Two: Mounties 7 North Island 5

In the night cap, the Mounties struck first in the bottom of the 2nd when Kingsbury doubled with 2 out to score Hogan.  Mounties starter Lee was cruising along until he was victimized by some shoddy defensive play in of the top of the 3rd inning resulting in 3 unearned runs.  North Island scored another unearned run in the top of the 4th ending Lee's day with the Mounties trailing 4 - 1.  

The Mounties, who were a little aggravated by the previous defensive miscues, retaliated with 5 hits and 4 runs in the bottom of the 4th inning to re-take the lead 5 - 4.  The score stayed the same for the next two innings, but the Mounties were unable to close it out.  In the top of the 7th, Younan walked the lead off batter setting the stage for 2 Mounties errors which correlated to the tying run by North Island, who never registered a hit in the inning.  

With the game deadlocked at 5 the Mounties threatened to score in the 7th and 8th, but 3 hard hit infield lineouts, including a diving game saving catch by the Royals 2nd baseman, were their unfortunate undoing in those innings.  Younan did his job shutting the door not allowing a hit in his 4 innings of work, setting up the dramatic heroics in the bottom 9th.  Yang reached 1st on an error and then went to 2nd on a misguided pickoff attempt.  Up to that point North Island had played flawless defence.  Huntley, on one of the longest bunts in Mountie history, moved Yang to 3rd base.  With 1 out Currie stepped up to the plate and on a 1 - 0 pitch ended the game with one swing of the bat sending a towering "no doubter" over the left field wall for a walk-off homerun.  Final score Mounties 7 North Island 5.

Younan, after blowing the save, picked up the win going the final 4 innings of the game.  Younan gave up no hits, walked 2 and hit a batter while recording 5 punchouts and gave up 1 unearned run.  Starter Lee went 4 solid innings giving up 4 unearned runs, scattering 6 hits, surrendering no free passes, while striking out 4 batters. Yang rounded out the pitching spinning a scoreless 5th.  Leading the offense was Hogan, Lindeman, and Currie who each had 2 hits.  Yang and Currie each had 2 RBIs, and Hogan scored 2 runs.  All in all, a good start at home, and an exciting game two to end a successful Opening Day at Vancouver Minor Baseball's Nanaimo Park.