It’s been a good month for Abbotsford baseball, and a local Pee Wee five-some kept that momentum going at the San Diego Summer Sizzler last weekend.
Abbotsford baseball talents Quientin Kobes, Cardel Dick, Mattias Meleg, Kaleb Pruden and David Krahn were all picked up by the Vancouver Community Mounties to compete at the California event as part of Team B.C. Red.
The local players were selected by the Vancouver team after impressing Mounties management when Abbotsford faced Vancouver at the B.C. Baseball Pee Wee AAA 13U provincials earlier this month. Vancouver beat Abbotsford 4-2 to win provincials at that event.
Team B.C. Red finished second in the silver pool at the tournament in San Diego, which wrapped up on Sunday.
The team opened with a 5-5 draw to San Diego TB on Saturday early afternoon, and then fell 15-1 to CBA Wave later that day to conclude pool play with one tie and one loss. Team B.C. bounced back in playoff action with a 5-3 win over the Temecula Tar Heels on Sunday, but then fell 11-6 to the Vista, Calif.-based West Coast Baseball.
The strong showings from the locals comes off the heels of provincial gold medal wins for the Abbotsford Angels 13U A club and the Angels 9U Mini Mosquito team’s provincial championship earlier this month. Teams earning silver medals included: the 13U AA and AAA teams and the 11U AAA Tier 1 club.
Team representatives from the 13U AAA team, who recently hosted provincials at Abbotsford’s Berry Park, said it was nice to bring a high level of youth baseball back to local diamonds.
“We did have some challenges hosting Provincials, but in the end it all came together smoothly,” stated organizing committee member Sabrina Milne. “From our Mayor coming out to throw the first pitch, to Carter Loewen [Toronto Blue Jays product] saying some encouraging words to the boys, along with Esther Fietje who sang our National Anthem and Haley on bag pipes we couldn’t have asked for a better turnout. Our community stepped up and helped us out a lot from sponsorship to donating stuff. We couldn’t have done it with out them.”
The 13U AAA team is now heading off to the Western Championships, which begin today (Wednesday) in Alberta.
For more on all the local teams, visit abbotsfordbaseball.ca.