It's been a busy month for both divisions of the North Shore Twins, with the senior team placing first in the provincial championships and the juniors coming mighty close in the junior provincials.
The North Shore Twins doled out an impressive win Aug. 2 in Victoria where they played against other provincial contenders, eventually knocking the Nanaimo Pirates out and taking the provincial champion title. The team left for Quebec Tuesday to take part in the national championships after securing their position there last month.
Meanwhile here in North Vancouver, the North Shore Junior Twins hosted the B.C. Junior Premier Baseball League Provincial Championships this past weekend where they lost in the final game against the Whalley Jr. Chiefs, Sunday.
"Overall the weekend was phenomenal, the level of competition was certainly what we would expect for a provincial championship, the teams that were there were deserving of being there," said Dave Speers, general manager for the Jr. Twins, who last won the championship in 2013.
"We never felt that we were out of it regardless if we were down by a run or if we were down by three or four runs. We just always had confidence and our guys knew it was a matter of time before we would put up runs."
Hosted at Parkgate Park this year, the Jr. Twins knocked out the White Rock Jr. Tritons, the North Delta Jr. Blue Jays and the Abbotsford Jr. Cardinals for a 3-0 win streak in the first part of the round robin tournament. The Jr. Twins, who went into the tournament in second place, defeated the Langley Jr. Blaze (who entered in first place) by a single run the following day before going on be defeated by Whalley 8-6 in the final.
"They definitely just kind of had our number. We came out, we were ready to play and it was one of those games where it wasn't our best game," said Speers, who explained that despite the loss, his team's spirits were not dashed.
"It was a really fun year and an enjoyable year. I can say our guys didn't walk off the field with their heads hung between their knees, they walked out proud of what they'd done this year and the body of work that they put together. It was good, we were very proud of their effort."
This year marks a distinction for the North Shore (senior) Twins who won both the B.C. Premier Baseball League Championships and the regular season league championship.
"This is the first year that we've won the league title. .. then followed it up with a provincial title," said Rick Elstone, general manager for the North Shore Twins.
"It's our fourth provincial title but the first time we've ever done it back-to-back with the league championship too."
Despite an initial loss during their first game of the tournament against the Okanagan Athletics, the Twins quickly bounced back knocking out every other team they went up against in the tournament, which was held in Victoria's Royal Athletic Park July 31-Aug. 2. "I don't know what happened that game. Our pitching was kind of mediocre and our hitting went away after the fourth inning, it just didn't seem to really show up," said Elstone, who went on to explain that hitting for the Twins was a little "off and on" throughout the season, at least until the final three games of the championships.
"But they certainly figured it out at the end though. In our last three games it was like 52 runs - we mercied every game."
One thing that remained strong all season for the Twins was their pitching, according to Elstone. "Really our starting pitchers, which was Will McAffer. .. , Matteo Vincelli, Robert Hemer and (Braeden) Toikka, just carried, our pitching was strong all year," he said. The North Shore Twins went on to crush the Victoria Eagles 12-2 in the Saturday game before doling out an 18-7 win against the Nanaimo Pirates during the Sunday (Aug. 2) final game. And the Twins aren't done yet. After winning a U18 B.C. championship against Parksville last month, the team secured a position representing B.C. at the national championships in Sherbrooke, Que., Aug. 11-18, a first for the team. "(We) never have gone to the nationals. We had the opportunity early in the year when it came up (and) we asked the guys if they wanted to do that. They were stoked, they wanted to do it so we're doing it."
