15U Nationals Semi-Final - Team BC comes from behind to defeat Team Alberta on epic 7th inning walk-off

Only two more opponents stood between Team BC and their gold medal repeat at the Ray Carter Cup. The first would be Team Alberta, aka the Okotoks Dawgs, who finished atop pool B with a 4-1 record. Alberta’s only loss came against Team Manitoba, the team that had the inside track in pool B heading into action on Saturday. All Manitoba had to do was beat the winless Team New Brunswick in their final preliminary game to secure a shot at avenging their semi-final loss against Team BC from last year’s tournament. In the end, they fell short, opening the door for Team Alberta to try to knock off the defending champs in their place. The game was originally scheduled to be played at the main diamond, but since the Hosts were competing in the other semi-final, they bumped the Western Canadian clash to Parc Chénier. You couldn’t ask for a better day to play baseball – and Team BC was ready for the challenge. 

Team Alberta 5, Team BC 6 

Aldrich Lin took the hill to start, a relatively fresh arm for Team BC, having only thrown 35 pitches in their first game against Saskatchewan three days prior. Lin was the ultimate warrior all season long, seemingly in a constant battle with the injury bug. Late into their provincial semi-final win, he dislocated a finger on his pitching hand while diving back into first base. A grave sign for the Jays, who were hoping to have him pitching in the final the next day – but Lin still came back and pitched anyway. There was absolutely nothing getting in the way of Lin and his goal of repeating as National champs, and his teammates loved him for it. He may not have been as dominant on the mound post-injury as he was throughout the season, but he was out there, still giving his team a chance to win.  

In the blink of an eye, Team BC was down 2-0. Alberta’s leadoff man drew a walk, then the first pitch to the next batter was hit on the ground to shortstop. If there was one weakness of BC’s defence, it would probably have to be turning the double play. They did get the force-out at second, but the throw to first was a hair late. Alberta’s big lefty bat Taye Thierman dug in the box with a man on, cracking a line drive homer to left centre on the 7th pitch of his at-bat. Had BC been able to turn the double play immediately before, they would’ve limited the damage in the opening frame. Instead, BC was forced to battle back from down a couple, which they did successfully on Thursday night/Friday morning against Quebec. It didn’t take the offence long to level the score. Back-to-back singles from Jack Bello and Dylan De Meyer kicked off the bottom of the 2nd, with the left-fielder's bobble allowing both runners to move up an extra 80 feet. Mason Dubnov’s RBI groundout also advanced De Meyer to third with one out, who would later score on a sacrifice fly by Tyler McWhinnie. Tied at 2, after 2. 

Alberta went back in front in the top of the 4th by putting on four consecutive baserunners with one out. A hit-by-pitch and an error on a potential double-play ball set the visitors up with runners at first and third with their starting pitcher next up to bat. Colton Ulyett-French bounced one through the right side to score one, then William Lapohn delivered with a carbon copy of his first at-bat. He drove a high fastball for a double to the left-centre gap in the 2nd, which didn’t end up hurting Team BC. This time, he smoked the exact same pitch to the exact same spot, barely beyond the outstretched glove of BC centre-fielder Connor Fischer to make it a 4-2 game. That marked the end of the line for Aldrich Lin on the mound, who handed the ball over to southpaw McWhinnie for the remainder of the game. 6 out of 10 batters in Alberta’s starting lineup were left-handed, so this was a great match-up for McWhinnie to slam the door and let the BC bats get back into it. He pitched out of the jam in the 4th to keep his team only down a pair, and the offense wasted no time getting back on even terms – before they even made their next out, in fact. De Meyer smashed one to the wall in dead centre, then was promptly lifted for pinch runner Reece Abbott, who had an instant impact on the bases. He was able to force the issue on a dropped third strike, sliding in safely at third base as Dubnov took possession of first uncontested, moving up to second on the next pitch. That set the table for Lucas Yu, who slapped a bouncing ball towards the Alberta second baseman. It would’ve been as productive an out as they come if not for the ball skipping over the defender’s glove into right field – virtually the same error that BC committed in the top half of the frame. Both runners scored to tie the game at 4 after 4 – one first-year player cashing in two others, don’t you love to see that! 

As is often the case, the rally started with a free pass in every inning that Team Alberta scored. They took a 5-4 lead in the top of the 5th thanks to a leadoff walk, a balk, plus a couple of groundouts, the latter of which Team BC made an incredible effort just to get the out at first. The home-run hitter Thierman chopped one towards De Meyer at first, who had it clank off his backhand in an attempt to retire the go-ahead run at the plate. It deflected towards the second baseman Bestebroer, who slid to corral it at the edge of the infield cutout before whipping it over to the bag for a huge out. In the bottom half, Team BC proved they have some home-run hitters of their own. Desmond Tregaskis put his three years of experience under Coach Frick on full display in his 5th inning at-bat, demonstrating a master class of plate discipline and approach. Facing the Alberta relief pitcher Thierman, after taking a high fastball for ball 1, he watched a curveball in the zone for strike 1. Thierman tried to get him to chase in the dirt by doubling up on the curveball, but Tregaskis wouldn’t bite. Now in the driver’s seat, he demolished the 2-1 fastball over the netting in left field, watching it bounce off the roof of the locker rooms 60 feet clear of the fence. This was no wall-scraper folks, a true major-league home run that tied the ball game again – 5 all, after 5. 

Team Alberta went down relatively quietly in the top of the 6th, giving BC the opportunity to claim their first lead of the day. Lucas Yu got it started with another hit to right field, his third of the tournament. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases with one out, the top of BC’s order now coming up for the fourth time. Bestebroer battled hard but wound up striking out in a 7-pitch at-bat for out #2. It was up to Redpath, who found himself in a 2-0 hitter’s count but just missed squaring up his pitch, serving a soft liner into the glove of Alberta’s centre fielder for the final out. Alberta sent up a pinch hitter for their lefty bat in the #9 spot to leadoff the 7th, and it paid off. A single followed by a hit-by-pitch two batters later had Alberta back in business, poised to put BC on the back foot yet again. The hit-by-pitch was totally undeserved, as the batter clearly stuck his elbow out at the incoming pitch for his fourth free pass in as many plate appearances, but it went undetected by the 3-man umpiring crew. Fortunately, the staunch lefty from Nanaimo was unphased, as McWhinnie struck out the next two Alberta hitters to end the threat, including the dangerous Thierman, who would now be forced to keep Team BC off the board in the bottom of the 7th to extend the game. 

Jack Bello was hoping to start a rally just as he did way back in the 2nd inning. After falling behind 1-2, he took a couple of close pitches to work a one-out walk. The last time Bello was on base, he was picked off at first because the dirt around the bag at Parc Chénier was softer than the beach the boys would visit on their team runs back home. Now representing the winning run, Thierman threw over 4 times trying to catch Bello off guard a second time, but Bello dove back in safely every time. Each time he stood up, he’d have to take time to smooth out the dirt that he’d be taking his lead in, certainly in no mood to take any risks with the hot bat of De Meyer at the dish. Perhaps Thierman spent too much effort worrying about the baserunner, as he fell behind in the count 3-1. De Meyer knew this was the perfect time to ambush the pitcher, and he did just that. The 3-1 pitch was driven to the wall in left centre, the speedy Bello on his horse around second and approaching third. It looked like we might have a whacker of a play at the plate on our hands... until the loose ball was inadvertently kicked by the Alberta outfielder. There was no play – Bello but a bow on it with a headlong dive into home plate for good measure, the rest of his teammates mobbing the clutch-hitting De Meyer around second base to celebrate Team BC’s semi-final WALK-OFF VICTORY! 

The boys from Delta had their fair share of comebacks this season, but none that felt quite like this. This was only the team’s third walk-off win – recounting the previous two, the first came after they blew a late lead and the second was somewhat of a fluke. No doubt this was the sweetest walk-off for the program since the provincial final in 2019, well before the Blue Jays era. Team BC never led until the last moment, yet their belief in themselves never wavered – truly, truly remarkable. If they didn’t already believe they were unstoppable heading into their National Finals rematch with Team Quebec, they sure did after this win.