If you’re hoping to get into this weekend’s Pemberton Music Festival you could maybe check with a few of the North Shore’s best young baseball players — their tickets have suddenly become available.
The District 5 Big League (17-19) all-star team scored a thrilling upset victory over powerhouse District 3 (Whalley, Langely, Coquitlam) in the provincial best-of-three championship final held over the weekend at Inter River Park, earning a trip to this weekend’s national championships in Calgary. For several players, that meant a change in plans.
“Four or five of them had bought tickets to the Pemberton Music Festival and now they’re selling them,” said District 5 head coach Dal Nicholson with a laugh. “They’re pretty excited about going to nationals. They’re only 17 or 18 once — they can go to music festivals when they’re older.”
There were only two districts competing at the Big League provincials this year but the North Shore team still came in as big underdogs against D3, a district that has dominated the provincial scene for at least a decade.
“They’ve always been the strong ones,” said Nicholson. “They’ve probably gone to the Canadians 10 years in a row.”
It looked like D3 would be going back again this year after scoring a 7-5 win in Game 1 of the provincial series Saturday. Game 2 — a must-win for the North Shore — was a back-and-forth struggle that was tied 4-4 after seven innings, the normal end point at this level. In the top of the eighth the North Shore boys scored twice to line themselves up for a win but D3 fought back in the bottom of the inning, scoring once and placing runners on second and third base with two outs. With the season on the line for D5, leftfielder Jeremy Fish made a crucial catch deep in the park to preserve the win and force Game 3.
“It was a long fly ball to left field,” said Nicholson, adding that Fish made sure there was no doubt about the catch. “When he showed up (the next day), he still had the ball in his mitt. He wasn’t giving it up.”
The winner-take-all third game was another thriller.
“Everything was down to the last pitch,” said Nicholson. North Shore pitcher Braedan Fitzpatrick dueled with his D3 opponent, tossing 6.2 innings of one-run ball. D5, however, still trailed 1-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh, their season coming down to three final outs.
A single and double later and the score was tied 1-1. With two outs and runners on second and third, the D3 pitcher uncorked a wild pitch and the North Shore’s Nash Dabb scampered home to score the championship-clinching win and send the team to nationals. It wasn’t exactly how you normally draw up a dramatic winning run but that didn’t matter one bit to the D5 boys.
“We’ll take it, that’s for sure,” said Nicholson, adding that the play still produced the glorious celebration of a walk-off win. “They mobbed the kid who came in from third, all three coaches were in on the mob and then you had all the parents streaming onto the field to take pictures. It was a nice feat.”
There won’t be time for a prolonged celebration, however, as the team is now heading off to Calgary for the national championships, joining all-star squads from Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec, as well as Atlantic and Prairie regional representatives. The winner will go on to the Little League World Series scheduled for July 28-Aug. 4 in Easley, S.C.
The appearance at nationals will be a first for the North Shore players and the coach — Nicholson was supposed to take a Little League senior team (16-17) to nationals five years ago but had to back out because of a family health concern.
“I was pretty upset about that but they went a long way and lost in the final,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for 25 years and this is my first time at the Canadians. It’s a pretty exciting thing for me and my family.”
Nicholson said he picked the brains of the D3 coaching staff to get some inside information on the teams they’ll be facing.
“They said the nationals are pretty tough because some teams have bigger areas to draw from so they have more people in their leagues,” he said. “Basically I have 14 kids and I didn’t cut anybody.”
The roster may be small but all the D5 players — who only had two weeks to prep for provincials following their normal Little League season — have already shown that they can come up big in high-pressure moments, said Nicholson.
“During the three (provincial championship) games everybody contributed somehow, whether it was a great catch or a hit at the right time or whatever,” he said. “They really excelled. I always say to them before the game ‘don’t be afraid to make a great play.’ Some kids, they don’t want to dive thinking the ball might get past them or whatever, but we probably had at least four plays where kids were stretched full out and dove and caught the ball. That’s exciting stuff and it’s good to see kids who want to be that aggressive and play that well.”
