Richmond Bantam AAA Chuckers are more than living up to their early season expectations.
The U15 rep baseball rolled to five straight victories last weekend to capture the Best of the West Tournament in Kamloops. Richmond completed the perfect run with a 7-3 victory over the Coquitlam Bantam Reds prep team in Sunday’s championship game.
The Chuckers erased a 2-0 deficit by scoring twice in the fourth, highlighted by an RBI triple by Montaro Uyeyama. He then later scored thanks to some alert base running when Justin Thorsteinson grounded out to the pitcher. Richmond would go on to score five more unanswered runs to take control, including three in the top of the seventh.
That was more than enough offence for pitchers Carter Castle, Peter Broderick and Reid Dawson who combined to allow just five hits and struck out nine.
The Chuckers advanced to the final with a memorable 3-0 victory over Alberta powerhouse Okotkos Dawgs.
Thorsteinson was more than ready for the challenge on the mound. The rookie southpaw was simply superb, allowing no hits and striking out 11 in a near complete game effort. Dawson came on to record the final out of the game.
Richmond did all its scoring in the first inning thanks to key hits by Uyeyama and Josh Moscovitz.
Richmond had opened the tournament with a 14-1 romp over Edmonton’s SFX Academy. Uyeyama had another big outing at the plate with four hits to drive in three runs. Dustin McElwain went 2-4 with four RBI. Moscovitz drove in three runs.
The Chuckers also defeated the North Shore Twins prep team 9-4 and Okanagan Athletics 15-1. Duke Howells had three hits against the Twins and also recorded the win on the mound. Broderick scored three runs in the win over Okanagan. Hirako Sato and Ethan Hong added a pair.
