Expos Split with Victoria Black and Clinch Top Seed Going Into This Weekend's B.C (Minor) Baseball Wildcard Tournament

Other than White Rock, no one else was more disappointed to hear about what played out the night before at the Burnaby-WhiteRock game than the Vancouver Minor Expos. With Burnaby locking up the final provincial berth (before the Wild Card Tournament) with a forfeit win, the Expos could only look for the bright side to all of this and that was to clinch top seed going into the wildcard. That they did, a hard-fought 3-0 victory in game 2 after a 0-5 loss in game 1 helped secure the top spot going into this weekend.

VictoriaBlack 5 EXPOS 0

Domingo who has been lights out for Vancouver lately got the nod in this contest against a Victoria team that has been known to put up some gaudy numbers on the offence. Both clubs were fresh off convincing tournament wins and Victoria's "A" squad, led by the legendary Bob Mabee weren't taking things lightly against Vancouver as the Eagles would oppose with arguably their ace of the staff, Walker. Domingo looked like a superstar in the first inning and a bit as the youngest player on the Vancouver squad had all his pitches working for him, making Clark, Walker and Jansch, three respectable Victoria hitters look completely overmatched. In the 2nd, Domingo dug himself a hole with 2 outs as he walked Kelley and Irvine and a pitch before striking out Cull for the third out, Kelley would score on a pass ball making it 1-0 after 2 for the Eagles. The third inning was more or less the same story as Hegland reached on a dropped third strike, a balk, walk and error followed next thing you know Jansch is up with the bases loaded and 1 out. Jansch would make the Expos pay with his only solid hit of the day a single to RF scoring two runs, Victoria would pick up another run off a sac fly, 4-0 Victoria after 3. Horino pitched well in the relief allowing an unearned run in just under 3 innings of work. Top of the 7th, with two runners in scoring position and with 1 out, Fukuda came in for one batter and induced a fly ball to LF just shallow enough to put doubt in the minds of Mabee (third base coach) and the runner on third to hold as they could only watch superstar left-fielder Domingo air mail the throw to home. Now with 2 outs and the dangerous Jansch up, Yamamoto was summoned from SS to pitch to the big right-handed hitter and sat him down on three nasty pitches. Meanwhile, Walker kept Vancouver hitters off balance in his 5 inning 95 pitch start, only recording 5 Ks but induced weak contact into an impeccable Victoria defence en route to a 5-0 victory.

EXPOS 3 VictoriaBlack 0

With one season game left, Vancouver turned to their ace to get them back on track, Hutchings needed to hold off the potent Victoria offence just long enough for the Expos to break out on the scoreboard. Hutchings and Jansch, two big left handed hurlers toed the rubber in this one both with electric fastballs and it showed as Hutchings looked like the more dominant pitcher in this one, recording 12Ks and only allowing 2 hits; however, Jansch was up to the task as he went 6 shutout innings of his own, both starters turning it over to the bullpen in the 7th. Hutchings, still in line for the win saw his team get to the reliever in the top of the 7th thanks in part to a Betonio infield single, Suarez infield bunt single setting up a huge at bat for Hutchings himself. With runners on 1st and 2nd and none out, Hutchings hit a 2-strike single up the gut to plate Betonio, Inomata would follow that up with a hard single off the glove of the 2nd baseman playing in, Suarez and Hutchings would both come around to score on the 2-RBI single. Inomata threw 10 pitches in the 7th, a fly ball, single, pick off and strikeout to close the book on this game, 3-0 Expos. 

Vancouver pitchers struck out 23 Victoria batters today and neutralized the big bats of Jansch, Walker, De La Pena and Baldonaza as the four Eagles went a combined 2-22, Jansch's 2-RBI single in game 1 was the only base knock causing damage today. Pitching has been Vancouver's strength all year, exemplified today as they held a potent Victoria lineup to 0 earned runs. The Expos now head to Coquitlam this weekend to play in the dreaded wild card tournament. Their first round matchup comes against the other Victoria team (Red) as Vancouver is just 3 wins in a row away from punching their ticket to Nanaimo.