It’s been a heck of a July for the North Delta Blue Jays when it comes to national qualifiers.
On the heels of the club’s junior team earning a trip to Red Deer next month to represent B.C. at the Western Canadian U18 AAA Championships, the senior team came up large at Whalley Ball Park last weekend.
The Blue Jays proved to be the class of Baseball B.C.’s U18 AAA Tier One Championships — rolling to six straight wins. They will now represent their province at Baseball Canada’s U18 National Championships, slated for Aug. 15-18 in London, Ont.
The tournament brought together teams from the B.C. Premier League along with B.C. Minor’s College Prep League. The PBL’s Blue Jays and host Whalley Chiefs were joined by the Chilliwack Cougars, Cloverdale Nationals, Kelowna Sun Devils, Tri-Cities Thunder, and Ridge Meadows Royals.
The Blue Jays opened the championships with a 1-0 win over Kelowna — scoring the game’s only run in the top of the seventh. A 16-1 win followed hours later against Tri-Cities.
They completed round-robin play with victories over Ridge Meadows (3-2) and Whalley (11-1) — before taking care of Kelowna again in the semi-finals, 8-5.
The perfect run was completed with a 6-3 triumph over the Royals in the championship game.
The Blue Jays roster features: Caleb Cassie, Sean Heppner, Joe Houston, Matthew Payne, Noah Thomas, Sean Browne, Reid Dawson, Jake Finkelstein, Daniel Kim, Yugo Omiya, Jonny McGill, Jared Romaniuk. Tyler Wilson, Peter Broderick, Carter Cotton, Dustin McElwain, Cole Morgan, Thomas Richards and Jakob Wagner — along with junior affiliates Jordan Bach, Boston Warkentin, Kyle Hepburn and Ryan McCarthy.
The team is coached by Ernie Hawkins, along with pitching coach Carson Nylund and assistants Michael Caleb, Will Flodin and Brody Hawkins. Gerry White is the general manager.
Extra Bases…
The Blue Jays roster is loaded with Delta Tigers’ alumni with nine having coming through the powerhouse Bantam program. All were part of championship teams in 2016 or 2017.
On Wednesday, a partnership between the two programs took another step with the Tigers officially becoming part of the Blue Jays organization. They will make the move to the PBL’s Bantam Prep League next season where they already have established excellent rivalries thanks to tournament and exhibition play.
The Tigers will also continue their working relationship with the city’s three associations — Ladner, Tsawwassen and North Delta — which are all part of B.C. Minor.
