The Little Mountain Baseball All-Stars of Vancouver will represent Canada at the Little League World Series after defeating Moose Jaw 9-4 in the Canadian regional final on Friday.
Competing as Team B.C., Little Mountain went undefeated throughout the tournament (8-0). A team representing British Columbia has now won 15 of the last 16 Canadian regional championships.
Graydon Yan went 3-for-3 with a run batted in and two runs scored for Little Mountain.
Lucas Weisser picked up the win, allowing three earned runs on five hits while striking out three over 2 1/3 innings. Jaxon Mayervich allowed one run on five hits and struck out four over 3 2/3 innings of relief.
Zaid Guillaume was assigned the loss for Moose Jaw, competing as Team Prairies, after giving up four runs on three hits while striking out four and walking two over two innings.
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Guillaime entered the game with a tournament-leading 11 strikeouts through 5 1/3 innings, but suffered control problems on Friday.
B.C. opened the scoring in the top of the second inning when Yan scored on a Braedyn Lai Hainstock groundout.
Guillaime then got into trouble, loading the bases with two out, then throwing three wild pitches to put B.C. up 4-0.
Jackson Boyle took over for Guillaime in the top of the third.
B.C. went up 5-0 when Dylan Larter was hit by a pitch and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Yan. Then Prairies gave up two more runs on wild pitches, again with two out and the bases loaded.
The Prairies cut into the lead in the bottom of the inning when Neal Kohl’s RBI double and Luke Turner’s run-scoring single made it 7-3 with two on and one out. But Mayervich replaced Weisser on the mound and prevented any further damage.
B.C. got two of those runs back in the top of the fourth.
Prairies got a run back in the bottom of the sixth and final inning, but Mayervich struck out Kohl with the bases loaded to end the game.
The Little League World Series starts Wednesday in Williamsport, Pa.
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