It was a thrilling weekend of College Prep baseball at Butler Park as the Trail U18 Orioles earned another split in a four game series with the South Fraser Giants.
Three of those games between the Os and Giants were won in dramatic fashion, with two of the matches needing extra innings to decide the victor.
“All in all not a bad weekend, another split,” said Orioles coach Jim Maniago. “South Fraser is a pretty solid team, they were mostly Grade 12s and it showed. I expect they will be a team that makes the playoffs.”
Saturday’s Game 1 was a defensive gem, highlighted by great plays by both teams on the infield and outstanding pitching from the Orioles’ Jake Maniago and the Giants’ starter who gave up just three hits.
The game was scoreless through six innings, but the Giants struck first plating an unearned run in the top of the seventh. The Orioles rallied to tie it in the bottom of seven, and left the winning run stranded on third.
The Giants, however, scored three in the eighth to seal a 4-1 victory.
In the second match, Trail fell behind 6-0 then stormed back to tie it and force an extra frame.
“Nathan Dann belted a three run home run in the sixth inning to get us on the board, then we got three more in the seventh off consecutive RBI singles from Jake Maniago and Connor Stainer to tie it.”
In the extra inning, Levi Konken stepped up and hit a two out, two run single to score Maniago and Stainer for the improbable 8-6 victory.
Dann also came in and pitched three shutout innings in relief to earn the victory, while Owen Dickson pitched a scoreless eighth for the save.
In the third game on Sunday, the Orioles bats went cold and fell 7-1, managing just three hits again.
“We didn’t take advantage of the seven walks their pitcher gave us,” said Maniago. “They chipped away and scored in five different innings, not hitting us hard but showed their experience in moving runners around and scoring them when they had the chances.”
The Orioles Jesse Boyer pitched five innings in the loss.
In the last game of the weekend series, the Orioles jumped out to a 6-0 lead and then hung on for another 8-6 win.
Konken pitched six innings for the win and Dickson pitched a scoreless seventh for the save.
Jake Maniago and Landon Uzeloc both had three hits and Stainer chipped in big time with two hits and three RBI.
This weekend Trail hosts the North Fraser Nationals at Butler Park on Saturday, May 7 and the Tri-City Thunder on Sunday, May 8.
The two doubleheaders start at 11 a.m. on both days. Everyone is welcome and admission is free.
Read: Trail U18 Orioles open season on high note
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