A group of boys 11 to 13 years old will represent Powell River in the Pee Wee A baseball provincial finals after going undefeated in the recent Vancouver Island zone qualifier.
Powell River’s Pee Wee A Rep team went 6-0 in Campbell River against its zone teams on the weekend of July 22 to 24 and will now play against the province’s best teams in Cloverdale from July 29 to August 1 as a top-seeded team.
“Everyone is super excited,” said coach Scott Mastrodonato. “For most of them, this is their first opportunity to represent Powell River at a provincial level at any sport.”
Mastrodonato said the team was started about a month ago by picking players from Powell River’s four-team house league. Once the team was put together, it played 10 exhibition games and was able to enter into the zone-qualifying tournament.
The qualifier featured seven teams and two games per day.
“We just kept rolling along and the last game of our draw was against another team that was also 5-0 and we ended up winning and earning the top seed,” said Mastrodonato.
With the provincials in mind, Mastrodonato said the team is confident, but also cautious, as most of the teams in the Lower Mainlain are “a mystery” at this point.
“I don’t want to get overconfident, but we haven’t been knocked down by anybody,” he said. “But baseball is a funny game, mistakes happen and a game can go the other way real fast.”
Mastrodonato said another team of Powell River boys won the provincials several years ago and that this year minor baseball featured a strong pool of talent.
“Sometimes with our low numbers, there isn’t much opportunity for things like this to happen every year,” he said. “Kids move on to older age groups and some fall off, so you can’t always put a team together. We’re just enjoying the moment and we’ll do our best.”
