Tigers kick off July with two wins over UBC, improve to 6-4 on the season
Posted July 4, 2021
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The Tigers offense got off to a slow start in their 8-game series against White Rock, but the bats have come alive in their last four games. They closed out the series with a 13-1 mercy win last Saturday night in White Rock, plus an 8-1 win at home on Tuesday night. It’s July now, so no more games against White Rock unless they were to meet in the league championship tournament at the end of August. On Sunday the Tigers would welcome the UBC Thunder to Winskill Park for their first double-header against a new opponent, looking to build on their recent success.
UBC 2, TIGERS 10
One thing the Tigers have been doing well lately is putting runs on the board in the first inning, and that continued in game #1. The two veterans at the top of the order, McConnell and MacDonald, setting the table once again with a single and a walk respectively. Then it was Dryden Fuoco’s turn to do some damage against his former team, and he came through with a single up the middle to bring home the first two runs of the game. The big lefty wasn’t done there, he picked his spot to run and successfully stole second base, which always gets the boys on the bench fired up. Pearce drew a four-pitch walk, then Sam Grad hammered the second pitch he saw just barely out of the reach of UBC’s centre fielder, driving in Fuoco on the play. Pearce scampered home on a wild pitch, and Grad was right behind him, scoring on an RBI single from Tyler Olfert. With his signature sliding glove in hand, Olfert was ready to wreak havoc on the bases as usual. First pitch he steals second, shortly thereafter he would score all the way from second on a wild pitch that went to the backstop, as he was attempting a steal, rounded the bag and never looked back. The most SAVAGE baserunner in the PBL strikes again, capping off a six-run bottom of the 1st inning for the Tigers.
Tigers starter Ezra Murti was making his fourth start of the season and searching for his fourth win. He sat down the first six batters he faced in order before giving up his first hit to the leadoff guy in the 3rd. That hit would come around to score, call it an unearned run as there was a liner to third that should have been caught but instead deflected off the third baseman’s glove and dribbled into left field. UBC led off the 4th with another single, but this time catcher Aksel van Tol would gun out the lead runner trying to steal second, one of several great plays made by Tigers catchers on the day. Murti finished up with six complete innings, seven strikeouts and just the one unearned run allowed. The Tigers added to their lead in the bottom of the 4th, McConnell wearing one and Chow watching four go by. McConnell eventually came around on a pass ball, right before MacDonald dropped one in the left-centre gap to cash in Chow. MacDonald also scored on a pass ball to extend the Tigers lead to 9-1. The tenth run was Act II of the Tyler Olfert show. With two out in the 5th, he knocked one over the third baseman’s head for a double, stole third, then came home on yet another pass ball. He just cannot be stopped! Fuoco came in to earn the final three outs in the 7th, although the defense behind him didn’t give him the most help as one more unearned run plated for the Thunder before all was said and done. The Tigers committed three errors in the game, but the sticks and the pitching far outweighed the mistakes on defense in this contest. They needed to tighten that up in a much more competitive second game.
UBC 0, TIGERS 4
The Tigers had a lot tougher time getting the bats going in the back half of this home double-header. UBC sent right-handed side-armer Robert Jamieson to the hill for game #2, and his tricky arm slot and plus velocity dominated the Tigers first time through their order. He was going toe-to-toe with Tigers starter McConnell – amazingly, the two pitchers combined to strike out 12 STRAIGHT BATTERS between the bottom of the 1st and 3rd innings. Morgan MacCubbin finally broke the streak with a hard liner right at the UBC shortstop, an unlucky outcome for the only quality at-bat in the first three innings for the Tigers. Second time through the order, they had a little more success. McConnell helped his own cause in a huge way, seeing a lot of pitches from his counterpart on the mound, and on the eighth pitch of his at-bat he launched a ball over the left-fielder’s head for a one-out double. He’d advance to third on a pass ball, leaving his fate in the hands of fellow Tsawwassen native Olfert. The squeeze play was on, and Olfert executed it perfectly, bunting a fastball at his eyes to push the first run of the game across. A mere two pitches later and the Tigers took a 2-0 lead. MacDonald skied the first pitch he saw to right, hustling out of the box and making it to second base just in time, taking advantage of the misplay by the right-fielder. Fuoco didn’t waste anytime capitalizing on another RBI opportunity, he was peppering the middle of the field with base hits today. He came up again in the bottom of the 6th and repeated his previous stroke, cashing in the Tigers’ fourth run with another single, his 4th RBI of the day. Before that, a McConnell hit-by-pitch and an Olfert double tacked on the third Tigers run. As valiant an effort that Robert Jamieson turned in for UBC on the mound, it was mostly overshadowed by the Tigers pitching efforts. The Thunder only mustered a total of four balls in play in the game, and only one hit, which came from the first batter of the game. McConnell sat down 13 over five complete, then Pearce shut the door with six K’s of his own, earning his first save in the process. 19 strikeouts in a seven-inning game is unheard of – hell of an effort, boys! The Tigers sweep the double-header and now have a solid four-game winning streak going, which they’ll try to extend on Wednesday night when they travel to UBC.
Development Corner
The Tigers development squad participated in a tournament in Langley this Canada Day weekend. They were winless in their four games but had a couple great efforts against strong teams. On Thursday night against Langley’s development team when they carried a 2-1 advantage into the bottom of the 5th. Unfortunately, the Blaze’s big slugger came through with a massive 3-run homer that made all the difference, sending the Tigers families home disappointed. The kids are working their tails off and doing all they can to get better every day, and have an admirable attitude through it all, despite the extremely challenging start of their bantam baseball careers. They’ll give it another go on Tuesday night in Whalley, then have four more games to look forward to next weekend.