British Columbia is this year’s Baseball Canada Cup champions for a third consecutive year.
The B.C. all-star midget baseball team, including Burnaby’s Steven Moretto, captured the West Coast’s third straight gold medal following a 10-1 win over previously unbeaten Saskatchewan in the championship final in Saskatoon on Monday.
Moretto, a 16-year-old third base for the B.C. reps, had one hit and scored a run in the final, while Delta’s Tyler Hoefer threw a complete-game, including seven strikeouts in a two-hitter for the winners.
B.C. outhit the host province 14-2 in the seven-inning contest.
Kobe Morris of Victoria led the team with a .452 batting average, including four hits, three runs and two runs batted in in the gold-medal game.
Sooke’s Tyler Duncan also had a big game and championship tournament, finishing with a .333 average, while knocking in two runs on three hits, including a pair of dingers. Duncan also scored three runs.
Carter Loewen of Abbotsford chipped in with a pair of hits with two RBI and one run scored.
After opening the championships with a 1-2 record, B.C. was near-perfect the rest of the way, dropping only a 9-8 decision to eventual bronze medalist Ontario on Sunday.
Later in the day, B.C. got by New Brunswick 3-1, before defeating Quebec 6-2 on Monday to advance to the gold-medal final.
The Notre Dame Regional School student led all third basemen at the championships with six putouts and 11 assists in nine games played for B.C.
Moretto, who earlier shared a provincial Premier Baseball League title with the North Shore Twins, had seven hits and scored five runs for B.C. at the nationals.
Moretto and Twins teammates Nicholas Carusi and Nicholas Favaro of Burnaby are currently with the PBL midget club for the 18-and-under Baseball Canada national championships in Magog, Quebec.
The national final is scheduled for Sunday.
Pitcher to Oz
In other midget baseball news, pitcher Matteo Vincelli of Burnaby joined Baseball Canada’s junior national team that will take on Australia’s Major League baseball academy in an eight-game pre-world exhibition series on the island continent’s Gold Coast from Aug. 16 to 24.
The final camp will be used to select the final 20-player squad that will represent Canada at the under-18 Baseball World Cup in Osaka, Japan from Aug. 28 to Sept. 6.
At the worlds, Canada will be in a group with Cuba, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Italy and South Africa.
Canada earlier qualified for the u-18 worlds following a bronze-medal finish at the Pan American championships in La Paz, Mexico.
