Morning Star Staff
The Vernon Atrium Hotel Canadians grounded the Kelowna Sun Devils 11-6 in Okanagan Midget AA Baseball League play Wednesday night at Marshall Field.
Tyler Droeder pitched 5 1/3 innings for Vernon, striking out six batters and allowing five runs.
“At 6-foot-2, Tyler is one of the hardest throwing lefties in the Interior,” said Canadians’ coach Carl Vardon. “He is batting .408 and he hit an inside-the-park home run and scored another run.”
Shelby Porteous anchored the infield at shortstop while scoring twice with a single and a walk. Caden Bracken, who leads the Atrium crew batting .534, scored once and drove in two runs.
Veteran Haydon Vardon took the mound to close the game, dazzling the crowd with his split finger fastball. Vardon struck out three batters, allowing one run. The Canadians play Saturday and Sunday at Marshall Field.
Meanwhile, the Midget AAA Vernon Canadians lost 6-3 and 11-3 to the Richmond Chuckers in B.C. league play Saturday at Marshall Field.
Ty Wellman went four innings and gave up three earned runs as starter in Game 1. Jarod Leroux hurled two innings, taking the loss before giving the ball to Jake O’Quinn.
Dylan Eckland was 2-for-3 with two stolen bases, while Caden Doyle was 2-for-4 with a triple and two stolen bases. Eric Embleton was 1-for-2 with an RBI.
“Our bats were decent and our defence was excellent,” said Vernon coach Ken Liefke. “The problem we ran into this game was that we issued too many walks, 13 in total; all six runs we allowed were from these walks. It just wasn’t our day.”
In Game 2, Corey Anderson pitched six innings, and was tagged for six runs, suffering the defeat.
Doyle drove in two runs with a single and double, adding a stolen base. Eckland produced a pair of singles, while Leroux drove in one run.
“We were tied at three going into the sixth inning and had one of those really special innings where we decided to kick the ball around instead of fielding it,” said Liefke.
“It is amazing how one week ago we were unstoppable and this weekend we probably would have been beat by a Pee Wee team. Unfortunately, the boys had to do some running after the game and hopefully this wakes them up and they come to play this Saturday when we host Kelowna (Sun Devils) at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. at Marshall Field.”
Vernon is sixth at 11-7. Kelowna is 10-10.