NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C. – History isn’t exactly on the side of Tom Bazkur’s High Park team at the Canadian Little League baseball championship.
Only three times in 15 years have Ontario teams won the event, the last being a squad from Ottawa in 2004. B.C. teams have dominated the tournament of late, winning the last six national titles.
Conventional wisdom has been Ontario teams should win more often in this event based upon the province’s population base and talent pool. But coach Bazkur isn’t buying that because with five of the six teams having to win provincial or regional titles to qualify for this event, there’s no shortage of clubs capable of capturing the national crown.
“I’m a humble man and the organization is humble,” Bazkur said modestly. “We will be competitive and play as hard as we can for six innings.
“That’s all I can tell you.”
High Park improved its hopes Monday as it came from behind to edge Langley, B.C., 4-3 in a battle of two previously undefeated teams. The Ontario representative, based in east Toronto, improved to 3-0 while Langley, considered a strong tournament favourite, dropped to 2-1.
“I’m not adding anything to the fire,” said Bazkur. “I respect that squad. Jason (Andrew, Langley’s head coach) and their coaching staff are as smart as any team there is. For us to do what we did today is a pretty good thing for us, but we’re not over-confident. We told the kids to keep their heads down, not let it swell up and come back on Saturday.”
But Langley’s Andrew did not consider High Park an underdog.
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“Toronto, I knew, was going strong,” said Andrew. “We scouted their practices early. They have some great players there. I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game whatsoever. You can’t take anybody lightly. What team? What province?”
High Park’s Ryan Kula, in the third inning, and Christian Pandoff, to straightaway centre field between the scoreboard posts, in the fourth, homered to erase 2-1 and 3-2 deficits. Then in the fifth, Kula raced home on a wild pitch to slide under the tag of Langley pitcher Yi An Pan for what proved to be the winning run.
The game had a dramatic ending as relief pitcher, Harley Gollert, an 11-year-old lefty who was one of the youngest and smallest players, fielded a grounder along the first base line and threw to second for a one-six-three double play.
“To be quite honest with you, on that double play, I thought he was safe at first base, but we’ll take the call,” said Gollert with a big smile.
Gollert did not allow a run after coming on in relief of starter Thomas Mienkowski in the top of the fourth with High Park trailing 3-2.
“I wanted to come in,” said Gollert, who took the mound after playing centre field. “I was excited and I was ready for it.”
Monday’s victory followed a 12-1 win over tournament host Mount Seymour on Sunday. The squad opened the event Saturday with a 10-4 decision over Calgary’s Rocky Mountain all-stars, the Prairie representative.
Bazkur says depth has been the key to his team’s early success, adding he has eight or nine solid pitchers and just as many quality bats in his lineup.
The Canadian winner will represent the country at the Little League World Series later this month in Williamsport, Pa. While only three Ontario teams have won the Canadian title over the last 15 years, the other two champions have come from High Park.
There’s also stability with this year’s squad. Bazkur, fellow coach Rocha and manager Chuck Boyes have coached youth baseball together for the past 20 years.
Their respective kids are too old for little league but Bazkur says the three men remain involved in the sport because of their love for the players. And he hopes they can repay an organization that’s been in operation since 1952 with another Canadian championship.
“It will mean the world to the children,” Bazkur said. “It will be a culmination of (the work) of all of the major-league coaches in our major league.
“Two of the kids come from each of the six house league teams. So it’s not a culmination of just the three coaches here. It’s a culmination of the whole major division of the High Park organization.”
High Park handed Langley only its third loss in 17 games spanning district, provincial and Canadian championships. However, both Bazkur and Langley counterpart Andrew predicted their teams will face each other again before the championship is decided.
“We lost to White Rock (in the districts) and we eventually came around to beat them,” recalled Andrew. “We lost to Hastings (of Vancouver) in the provincials and eventually came around to beat them.”
A pattern is developing, he added. And, he expects history to repeat itself one more time in this tournament.
“I’m sure we’re going to see Ontario down the road,” he said. “And then, if the pattern speaks for itself, I’m hoping we’ll have a better result next time.”
In other action Monday, Calgary posted an 8-4 victory over Maritimes representative Sydney, N.S. Calgary improved to 1-2 while Sydney dropped to 0-3.
Host Mt. Seymour of North Vancouver, won its first game, defeating previously undefeated Valleyfield, Que., 6-1. Mt. Seymour is 1-2 while Valleyfield is 2-1.
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