Skip to content

Seymour gets on the board

Mount Seymour Little Leaguer Desi Burgart picked a good time to hit the first home run of his life, belting a two-run shot Monday night to help the host team score their first win of the Canadian Little League Championships.

Mount Seymour Little Leaguer Desi Burgart picked a good time to hit the first home run of his life, belting a two-run shot Monday night to help the host team score their first win of the Canadian Little League Championships.

Burgarts big blast came as part of a 6-1 win for Seymour over les Elites de Valleyfield, the representatives from Quebec, in front of a large home crowd at North Vancouvers Chris Zuehlke Memorial Park.

Fastball, right down the middle, said Burgart about the pitch he sent over the fence in left field. I didnt know if it was going to go so I was sprinting pretty hard up to first.

As the cheers rose he was able to slow down a little into the first home run trot of his life, his teammates pouring out of the dugout to greet him at home.

They all knew it was his first home run, said Seymour head coach Pete Matthews. You could see them come out of the dugout with a lot of aggression. We hit a lot of home runs this year but Desi hasnt hit one so they were pretty pumped to see him do it.

Cameron Filippone scored the win for Mount Seymour, pitching four and a third innings while giving up just two hits and no runs while striking out seven. It was a strong return for Filippone after he was roughed up in Seymours opening day loss to the B.C. champs from Langley.

(He) was great, said Matthews. He had a bit of a rough start on Saturday so we wanted to get him back in there and get him solid so that if we did make it into the semis we could get him back in with a lot of confidence. . . . Hes a keen 12-year-old baseball player. He wanted to get back on the mound and give it a shot.

The win gives Seymour a 1-2 record after dropping their first two games to Langley and Ontarios High Park Little League from Toronto.

Its a great feeling, said Matthews. Its really good for the kids to come in here and finally get a win. Thats going to set the stage hopefully for the next couple of days to come.

This is much more a game that were used to playing. Were used to our pitchers coming in and being effective and were used to our bats being alive. Our bats arent 100 per cent yet but definitely today was a good game. We fielded well too, which we havent done the first two games. Im hoping the jitters are off the kids and theyre feeling the flow of the tournament and theyre having fun.

Quebec, winners of their first two, dropped to 2-1 to sit in a tie for second with Langley. Ontario leads the tournament with a perfect 3-0 record after knocking off Langley 4-3 on Monday. Calgarys Rocky Mountain Little League, representing the Prairies, defeated team Atlantic from Sydney, N.S., 8-4 to move their record to 1-2 while dropping Sydney to 0-3. The top four teams make the semifinals.

Round robin play continues Tuesday and Wednesday with semifinals scheduled for Friday and the championship game going Saturday at 1 p.m.

aprest@nsnews.com