Four Burnaby baseball players helped the North Shore Twins win a firstever B.C. junior premier provincial title.
The Twins, including Alex Owen, Matteo Vincelli, Matthew Woo and Matthew Reyes, became just the third junior PBL team to win both the league and provincial titles, but wasn't easy.
The North Shore club, which fashioned a record 35-9 regular season, including a 21-game unbeaten streak, was pushed to the brink of elimination before winning three straight games on Sunday to take the title with a 7-2 victory over the Langley Blaze.
Manny Restrepo doubled in two runs in the first inning and batted in two more with a second-inning single, while pitcher Will McAffer struck out nine batters in a complete-game win.
The Twins qualified for the semifinals with 5-0 tiebreak win over the Abbotsford Cardinals.
In the semifinal, North Shore squeaked out a2 victory over long-time rival Vancouver Cannons, sparked by a lead-off double by Owen in a key threerun third inning.
North Shore led off the championships with a1 win over the Okanagan Athletics.
The Twins lost 12-2 the Coquitlam Redlegs, but rebounded with an 8-1 victory over Abbotsford. In the regular season, Reyes led all batters with a .414 batting average and was second overall with RBI. Reyes had five hits and scored seven runs the playoffs.
Burnaby's Nick Carusi, an infielder for the junior Vancouver Cannons, batted .327 in 40 games. He scored two runs and had two hits, including a triple for the Cannons at the B.C.s. Owen had two hits and scored three times for the Twins, while Woo had three hits and scored a run at the provincials.
Vincelli had eight hits and eight RBI and batted .615 in just six games with the Twins this season.
