Things just keep getting better for the North Shore Twins.
The unstoppable North Vancouver-based team has had a record season, including claiming their firstever B.C. Premier Baseball League regular season title, and are continuing to blaze a trail through the 2015 BCPBL Championship playoffs. The Twins hosted a Final 8 playoff round at Parkgate Park Saturday, defeating the Abbotsford Cardinals, and are gearing up for one final round of playoffs, the Final 4, set for Friday through Sunday at Victoria's Royal Athletic Park.
"I'm certainly pleased and I'm happy for the kids because they've worked hard. This is probably the best season the North Shore Twins have ever had up to this point in time, winning the league championship and then qualifying for the final four," said longtime head coach John Haar, a member of both the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
"They've done well and I think they've worked hard and got the results that they deserve . . . . We have a lot of fun," he added.
While last weekend's Final 8 was a best of three series, the Twins earned their berth into the next playoff round in two games, both played Saturday.
"It was a good thing that we only did have to play two because the third game would have carried us on to Sunday and Sunday would have been a washout on the North Shore for baseball. We struggled to get the park in shape for two games on Saturday and delayed the start there for three hours from noon to 3 p.m. We spent a lot of time preparing the field and in the end it was well worth the effort because we pitched and played a couple of our better games of the season in the playoffs so the timing was good," said Haar.
The score in game one was 7-0 for the Twins. "Our starting pitcher, Matteo Vincelli, went out and shutout the Cardinals. He gave up two hits, which is spectacular," said Haar.
The Twins went on to win their second game, 5-0, thanks to Braeden Toikka, starting pitcher, who threw a no-hitter. "So as good as Matteo was in the first game, as I said afterwards, he got one-upped by Braeden," said Haar.
Joining the Twins in the Final 4 are the Victoria Eagles, Nanaimo Pirates and Okanagan Athletics, which upset last year's BCPBL champions, the Langley Blaze, which was fourthplace in league standings going into the Final 8 playoff round.
The Langley team was eliminated by Okanagan in three games. "They split the doubleheader on Saturday and then Okanagan beat them in a rubber match game on Sunday, 4-0," said Haar.
In Victoria, the Twins will face the Okanagan Athletics on Friday, and on Saturday will play a doubleheader against the Nanaimo Pirates and Victoria Eagles. The top two teams will battle it out for the championship title on Sunday.
"We've had our battles with all of them. It's a pretty good group of four, in fact it's a really good group of four," said Haar.
"I think the match ups for those four will be real close - very competitive," he added.
The Twins' showing this season has been even more remarkable in light of the fact that, due to being plagued by injury, a number of younger non-starters have had to step up at various points along the way.
"They've done an excellent job through this period of injuries - two, three or four of our very best players. We've managed to get through it and we're healthy right now and I think everybody is pretty excited about this coming weekend," said Haar.
Apart from this weekend's final championship run, the North Shore Twins have one more tournament this summer. After winning a U18 B.C. championship three weeks ago in a playoff series with Parksville, they're headed to the national championship in Sherbrooke, Que., Aug. 11-18.
"We have a pretty special group of kids. Not only do they have a lot of talent but their commitment to each other is terrific. I try to always stress to them that you need to try and make everybody else on the team better. Not just yourself, but everyone else better. Everyone that you play with, do things that make all of you better. They've responded to that philosophy quite well. We haven't had any conflicts amongst players.. .. Their work ethic is very good. We practice hard and we play hard and I think they realize that they all have an opportunity at certain times to perform," said Haar.
