Richmond City Baseball Association’s U13 AAA all-star team is off to a flying start to the 2016 season.
The Chuckers defended their title at the recent Sussex All-Star Tournament in Kamloops. Richmond rolled to wins over Central Okanagan (11-9), Kamloops (8-5) and battled Alberta’s Parkland Twins to an 8-8 tie to capture its pool group.
The team then edged St. Alberts 7-6 in a dramatic seventh inning walk-off semi-final. The run was complete with a 14-4 romp of Port Moody in the championship game.
The Chuckers also took a perfect 8-0 record into playdowns this week and they look to be well on their way to locking up a berth in the B.C. Minor Provincial Championships, Aug. 4-7 in Duncan. Ten of the 15 teams participating in the playdowns will advance to Vancouver Island.
Richmond also will be participating in Baseball B.C.’s Provincial Qualifier, slated for July 28-31 in Kamloops. The top two teams from that event will represent B.C. at the National and Western Canadian Championships respectively.
Success is nothing new for the RCBA’s Pee Wee program.
Last year’s AAA team was crowned provincial champions. Head coach Scott Lunny has two returning players and suggests the Chuckers’ prominence reflects the association’s emphasis on developing players.
“Although we aren’t a big association, we do Fall Ball, winter training, field two spring AA (rep) teams and three U13 summer ‘all-star’ teams (A, AA and AAA),” explained Lunny. “We don’t always win with every team at every level, but we are developing a lot of young players and have become consistently competitive over the past few years at the top (AAA) level.
“We are off to a good (and fun) start again this year.”
Lunny’s coaching staff includes: Steve Hepburn, Russ Swaim and Laurence Estrada. The roster features: Sean Dolphin, Everett Swaim, Skylar Lenihan, Nico Cole, Kai Okuyama, Markus Chow, Andrew Estrada, Kyle Hepburn, Josh Abraham, Kyle Matsunuma and Ken Kinugawa.
