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Runner-up Tigers turn their attention to national qualifer

Delta begins play at Baseball B.C. tournament tomorrow in South Surrey with steady diet of B.C. Premier teams
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Delta Tigers round-robin schedule at Baseball B.C.'s national qualifier tournament includes a rematch of the Kyle Losse Memorial final against Abbotsford from the B.C. Premier League.

The Delta Tigers have turned their attention to this week’s Baseball B.C. national qualifier tournament at South Surrey Athletic Park after coming up just short in three-peating as 15U AAA provincial champions.

The Tigers’ bid for another B.C. Minor championship ended with a 5-2 loss to the West Coast Cardinals on Sunday in Chilliwack. The final culminated a season-long rivalry between the league’s top tier one teams that split four regular season meetings. West Coast will now represent B.C. Minor at a tournament in New Jersey later this month.

It was the only loss of the tournament for the Tigers after squeezing past Ridge Meadows 1-0 in the semi-finals behind a complete-game four-hitter from pitcher Luke Siemens. Jordan Bach scored the game’s lone run after he tripled and came home on a squeeze play with Taiyo Boily earning the RBI.

Earlier round-robin wins came against North Langley (11-0), Nanaimo (11-4), Cowichan (5-4) and Chilliwack (12-2).

Both the Tigers and Cardinals will be competing at the national qualifier which starts Thursday and features the top Bantam age teams from the B.C. Minor and B.C. Premier Leagues.

Delta opens play Thursday (3:15 p.m.) against the Whalley Chiefs, then have a pair of games Friday — facing the Abbotsford Cardinals (10 a.m.) and White Rock Tritons (3 p.m.). Round-robin play will conclude Saturday morning (9:30 a.m.) against the Victoria Mariners.

Semi-finals are slated for Sunday morning and the championship game goes at 1:30 p.m. The winner will represent B.C. at the Ray Carter Cup — named after the former Baseball Canada president and longtime Tsawwassen resident — Aug. 23-26 in Oshawa, ON.

The Tigers have not won the national qualifier in their brief history.

Extra Bases…

It was a solid debut for the Tigers first-year Blue team at the B.C. Minor provincials that concluded with a 2-2 record and coming up just short of qualifying for the semi-finals. The Blues lost out in a tiebreaker with Ridge Meadows and Kamloops after all three teams finished with the same record.