The Vernon Canadians tuned up for their Bantam AA Baseball home tournament at Marshall Field this weekend with a doubleheader split against visiting Penticton Saturday.
The Cs came back from a 10-4 deficit in the opener to win 11-10.
The first inning saw Ryan Vandesande, Ryan Gamage, Liam Alstad and Hayden Lewis all reach base and score.
Vernon bats woke up again in the fourth after Lewis singled, followed by Matt Hansen’s triple. Ben Fortems delivered an RBI to score Hansen, then put on his glove and went to the mound for the fifth and sixth innings, shutting down Penticton’s batters. He was helped behind him by solid defence from Colby Geiger in left field, Hansen at short and Alstad at first.
After Geiger reached first in the fifth, Gamage came up with a monster home run over the left field fence. Hansen hit a double to left that just missed clearing the fence, scoring Alstad, and Fortems hit a screamer down the third base line for another double.
In the nightcap, the fate was reversed and the Canadians came up one run short in extra innings, losing 9-8, despite a great performance on the mound from Sapion Joe, who pitched 4 2/3 innings, fanning seven batters.
Nakoda Parker had a great game both in center field and was 3-for-4 at the dish with a triple. Cole Hutchinson was again solid behind the plate and helped the cause with a single. Nolan Stein recorded a number of outs in right field, as well as hitting a single.
The Canadians host their home tournament this coming weekend with games going all day Friday to Sunday at Marshall Field.
The C’s play at 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday, and 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday.