The Langley Blaze won its first 2012 B.C. Senior Men’s Baseball championship in Prince George on Monday.
The Blaze beat the Nanaimo Coalminers 4-1 in the semifinal match to send them to the final against the Kamloops Sun Devils, who earned the berth after scorching the AM Ford Trail Orioles 16-1on Sunday.
Dave Diachuk, manager and coach of the Blaze, told the Prince George Citizen he was proud of his team for fighting through a season riddled with injuries after they wrapped up the weekend tournament at Citizen Field in Prince George with a 6-1 win over the Sun Devils.
“It feels pretty damn great,” said Diachuk. “It’s our third year in existence and we’ve managed to track down a certain number of players and have done a good job in organizing everything.”
Since the spring the Blaze have watched seven players go down to injury, including Prince George’s Brooklyn Foster, who suffered a partial tear of his MCL during a Canada Day game in Nanaimo.
“We had a fairly decent roster and we managed to fill in the spots and make up for the injuries,” said Diachuk.
Blaze first baseman Scott Webster was the tournament MVP after going 7-for-16 at the plate for a .438 batting average, with three homeruns and five RBIs.
Corey Parsons picked up the complete game, two-hit win against the Sun Devils, fanning eight. His only mistake came in the fifth inning when he gave up a homerun to Dave Hole. Graig Merritt, Bob Foerster and Tyler Willson all went deep for the Blaze.
“We’ve battled the whole way and we had tough games every game we’ve had,” said Diachuk. “We just sucked it up and got it done.”
The victory earned the Blaze a trip to the 2013 Canadian Senior Men’s championship in Windsor, Ont.