The Howe Sound Cannons senior men’s baseball club was in action over the weekend in the annual Dave Day Classic held in Vancouver.
Game one saw the Cannons match up against the Vancouver Cardinals. The Cannons offence jumped on the Cardinals starter early jumping for a 4-0 lead after two innings. Chris Foreman threw seven effective innings and Davey Jones led the offence with three hits in the 7-3 win.
In game two once again the offence jumped out to an early lead on the back of a Justin Lawerence bases clearing triple to put the Cannons up 3-0. It was a 3-1 game heading into the last two innings when the offence came alive and added on for a 9-1 win against the Victoria Royals. Kevin Smillie took to the mound for the Cannons and worked a complete game gem for the victory.
Sundaymorning the Cannons were once again matched up against the pesky Vancouver Cardinals in the semifinals with a trip to the final on the line.
The Cardinals jumped out to a 4-1 lead after two innings. The Cannons offence exploded for six runs in the fourth on the strength of a huge day at the plate for Justin ‘Big Daddy” Kraz, who had a two triples and a double to go along with five runs batted in. Jeremy Galley bounced back from the rough start to throw a complete game in the 8-4 Cannons win.
The finals were set, the Cannons were matched up against the Dewdney Bulls of Maple Ridge for prestigious trophy and healthy first place cheque. The Bulls jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, which the Cannons answered back in the bottom of the inning. Dewdney took the lead once again in the third inning scoring a single run to make it a 2-1 game.
Once again the Cannons were able to answer and it was a 2-2 game heading into the fifth inning. Back to back base hits from Matty Taylor and Jack Thompson set the table for a Troy Morphy 2-run single to put Ƶappup 4-2. That is all Jeremy Galley would need as he worked another complete game for the win. The final score was 4-2 for Howe Sound.
This is the seventh straight Dave Day Classic win for the Cannons and the first under new manager Alex Wishy.
“Our pitchers threw well all weekend and we got some timely hitting,” manager Wishy said. “The guys smashed the ballon Sundayand Galley put in some work on the mound.
“This was a complete team win, we played defense and hit the ball hard 1-9 in our line up all weekend, all the credit goes to my team behind me,” Galley said post game.
Tournament MVP was catcher Tony Hughson who was 7-12 on the weekend. Jack Thompson won the Gold Glove Award for some jaw dropping plays at shortstop.
The next Cannons home games are double headers onJuly 19 and 26.