Two Richmond baseball teams won gold at a recent Canada Day long weekend tournament in Cloverdale.
The Richmond Chuckers’ U10 A Division team took first place at the 2023 Cloverdale Boulanger Memorial Tournament.
As second place in their pool, they needed a semi-final win Monday evening against the top seed, an undefeated White Rock Tritons squad.
The Tritons took a 4-1 lead into the 5th inning, when the Chuckers’ potent offense posted the 10U maximum 4 runs to take a one-run lead.
The winning run was a dramatic steal of home before Richmond needed several spectacular infield plays to hold onto their 5-4 lead, taking them to the finals.
The Chuckers’s opponent in the gold medal game was the Abbotsford Angels, now the last remaining undefeated team, and the very team that had defeated them by two runs the day before.
This time, the Chuckers took a 9-7 lead into the 5th inning, including the team’s only over-the-fence home run of the tournament.
They added four runs, only to have the Angels post four runs to keep pace. With stellar pitching and clutch plays at first base in the last inning, Richmond protected their 13-11 lead to win gold.
The Chuckers are 3-0 to start their summer season.
Meanwhile, the U11 Richmond Chuckers proceeded to go 5-0 on the way to capturing the championship in the AAA Tier 2 Division of the same tournament.
The Chuckers secured first place in their pool with round robin victories over Abbotsford, Ladner and White Rock.
After defeating Abbotsford in the semi final, the Chuckers completed their unblemished weekend with a thrilling 11-7 win over Vernon in the final.
The boys are 2-0 in summer play thus far and have six games remaining to determine which Lower Mainland teams will secure births in the AAA Tier 2 Provincial Championships set to be held in Vernon from August 4-6
