THE Canadian Little League Championships are in full swing at North Vancouver's Chris Zuehlke Memorial Park with six teams from across the country competing for one berth in the famous Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.
Today is the final day of round robin play with semifinals Friday and the championship game scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday. Here are some snapshots from the tournament's opening days:
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.
Burgart's 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 Vancouver's Chris Zuehlke Memorial Park.
"Fastball, right down the middle," said Burgart about the pitch he sent over the fence in left field. "I didn't 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 hasn't 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 Seymour's 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. . . . He's 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 Ontario's High Park Little League from Toronto.
"It's a great feeling," said Matthews. "It's really good for the kids to come in here and finally get a win. That's going to set the stage hopefully for the next couple of days to come.
"This is much more a game that we're used to playing. We're used to our pitchers coming in and being effective and we're used to our bats being alive. Our bats aren't 100 per cent yet but definitely today was a good game. We fielded well too, which we haven't done the first two games. I'm hoping the jitters are off the kids and they're feeling the flow of the tournament and they're having fun."
Seeing double
Langley Little League, the freshly crowned British Columbia champs, knocked off host team Mount Seymour from North Vancouver 10-3 in the Battle of B.C. on opening day, Aug. 6, in front of an estimated crowd of more than 1,000 spectators.
Langley starting pitcher Yi An Pan threw a couple of innings before being replaced by someone with a pretty similar repertoire: his twin brother Yi Fan Pan.
The brothers also play shortstop and third base while batting third and fourth in the Langley lineup. Born in Taipei, they moved to Langley in Grade 1 and only took up baseball four years ago, said Langley head coach Jason Andrew, who admitted that even he would not know which was which without the numbers on the jerseys.
"They're identical twins, I can't tell them apart," said Andrew. "I can't tell them apart when they're on the mound, I can't tell them apart when they're hitting. They're identical in everything they do."
Even their black-rimmed eyeglasses match. What if they were to swap jerseys to mix up an opponent?
"Nobody would know," said Andrew with a laugh. "That'd be cheating though, we wouldn't do that."
Mount Seymour head coach Pete Matthews said he was happy that his team got to see both brothers on the mound and will be prepared if the team meet again later in the tournament.
"In Little League rumours abound, and they grow," he said. "It's like fish stories. Those boys, before we got here, they were seven feet tall and threw 80 miles an hour. And now all my kids have seen that they're just 12-year-old kids and they're just like everybody else."
Matthews was wrong about one thing - the twins are actually 13. But they are just kids. How do they decide which one gets to start on the mound for a big game?
"They actually do rock-paper-scissors," said Andrew.
Langley won their second game but fell 4-3 to Ontario on Monday to sit in a tie with Quebec for second place with a 2-1 record after Monday's games.
Insider info
Langley coach Jason Andrew knows a lot about the host Mount Seymour team - he owns North Vancouver-based baseball academy X-treme Gaps and has worked with more than half of Seymour's players.
Seymour starting pitcher Cole Ensign is one of those players and Andrew had a game plan to use against his pupil in the Battle of B.C.
"I knew he was going to throw great," he said. "I told our guys to be very patient, run that pitch count up and stay close. It was 3-3 when he went out, we were able to pour it on after that point."
The plan worked. Ensign struck out the side in the first inning and added two more Ks in the second but reached his maximum pitch count in the third. In the fourth Langley exploded for six runs to blow the game open.
Seymour's pitching staff will bounce back, said head coach Pete Matthews.
"Our pitching is what's going to take us through this tournament for sure," he said. "Our pitching is really deep. I'm confident in all our guys."
High Park homers
Toronto's High Park Little League representing Ontario looked strong through the first three days, notching wins over the Prairies, Mount Seymour and Langley while scoring 26 runs and giving up only eight.
Against Seymour on Sunday Christopher Procopio belted a two-run homer and finished with four hits and four RBIs. The power is legit - on Friday night Procopio was crowned king of the homerun derby, belting three dingers against 10 outs to finish in a tie with Prairie's Tanner Pate before cracking three more in a five-out tiebreaker to win the event.
Ontario's Ryan Kula also had four hits against Mount Seymour and also won the game as the starting pitcher, allowing only one hit in the game.
With a record of 3-0 Ontario sat in first place after Monday's games.
Dropped fly
Saturday's opening ceremony featured a bagpiper playing the kids onto the field, a ceremonial first pitch from North Vancouver Mayor Darrell Mussatto and an appearance from family members of Chris Zuehlke, the park's namesake.
One thing that did not happen was a planned Canadian Forces flyover. Originally an F-18 was scheduled to buzz the ceremonies but it was not available so an Aurora surveillance plane was subbed into the plans. But when the ceremony started the skies remained clear of everything except for a few floatplanes off in the distance. Where was the Aurora? Organizers said it had to change course it's now in Libya.
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