11U Mosquito AAA Tier 1 Tritons – Provincial Champions!

Congratulations to the 11U AAA Tier 1 Tritons on their 2023 Provincial Championship!

The group clinched a provincial berth as the #2 seed in the Lower Mainland and made the trip to Kelowna for Provincial Championship where they beat Kamloops, Chilliwack, and Comox Valley in Round Robin play.  They finished the round-robin play with a 3-0-1 record.  The tie came in a well-pitched extra inning defensive struggle to the Lower Mainland #3 seed Abbotsford.

In the semi-finals, White Rock took on a strong Victoria team, but the Tritons were led by the starting pitching of Sam Dieleman (4.1 innings, 8 K’s) and the power hitting of Kyler Bittner (HR, 4 RBI’s) to an 8-7 win.  Jude Carriere pitched the final 1.2 innings to get the save.

In the finals, the Tritons faced the host Kelowna Sun Devils.  It was a back and forth game with the Tritons taking an early 2-0 lead on a RBI triple by Roscoe Smith.  The Tritons held the lead on the strength of starting pitcher Noah Carriere (3 innings, 3 hits).  After a few runs by each squad, Madoc Zehr hit a key two-out RBI single in the top of the 5th to increase the Triton’s lead to 4-2.  However, Kelowna made a strong comeback in the bottom of the 5th, where they were able to score four runs to take a late 6-4 lead.  This wouldn’t stop the Tritons who got some key singles in the top of the sixth to load the bases for Carter Savage.  Savage hit a bases-clearing double into right-center field scoring three runs and giving the Tritons a 7-6 lead.  Savage would later score on a fielder’s choice to increase the lead to 8-6.  The Sun Devils were able to get one run back in the bottom of the sixth, but they were shut down by the winning pitcher Eli Dueck (2.1 IP, 3K’s).

The coaching group couldn’t be more proud of this team.  One of the emerging themes to this group as the summer went on was the importance of being a strong group of 12 and not dependent on a few players.  Some of the other key players over the weekend included two key catches in CF, and the two innings pitched by Riley Suvilai against Kamloops, the batting averages of Cohen Marples (.583) and Karsten Schnitzer (.600) over the six games, and Madden Samson’s defense at 3B where he had a 1.000 fielding percentage and hit .429 from the plate.

Congratulations again to the 11U AAA T1 Tritons!