Looking for their second straight league title, the Burnaby Blue Jays unloaded on the Richmond Rainiers last week, piling on the baserunners in pursuit of the Lower Mainland Over-30 Baseball League banner.
Small ball, long ball, all ball – Burnaby delivered on its goal with an overwhelming 11-2 win at Robert Burnaby Park.
With starting pitcher Jeff Weisgerber hurling five innings of two-hit ball, the Jays’ bats did their part, although not to the extent they could have.
“The score certainly didn’t reflect the game,” noted Burnaby manager Rod Van Dorn Sr.
“We left 18 guys on base, so we kind of let them off easy.”
But it also involved a comeback, as the Rainiers opened the scoring when their leadoff batter laid down a perfect bunt and came around to score in the first inning.
That was the only run Weisgerber would allow.
Burnaby countered with two runs in the bottom side, and Van Dorn admitted to some frustration after the club managed just a 2-1 lead despite sending 13 batters to the plate over two innings.
The dam would break in the third, and would be followed by a deluge of runs.
Reid Wildeman went 2-for-2, including a home run, and walked three times, while shortstop Adam Ladouceur was 3-for-4 and scored four times.
Jordy Cunningham relieved Weisgerber in the sixth and allowed one run over three innings, before Jeff Ammer came in and closed out the season-ending win.
“The pitching was solid and the defence was exceptional,” remarked Van Dorn. “We have a team that has a combination of speed and big boppers, and as they say speed kills.”
In a season where the club finished first at 14-2 over the regular season, two games better than Howe Sound and Richmond, a championship was the main driving force.
They augmented the lineup after last year’s title, picking up pitchers Steve Tosh and Cunningham. The foundation stayed the same.
Their biggest challenge came in the semifinal against the upstart Aldergrove Giants.
Cunningham took the mound and limited the Giants to one run, and left the game with the Jays leading 5-1.
Weisgerber, who went undefeated over the year, came on in relief and had everything under control until the ninth when Aldergrove got a pair of runners aboard. They followed that with a game-tying three-run blast.
In the bottom of the ninth and with two out, the Jays’ Shaun Van Dorn recorded his fourth hit of the game – a bunt single – stole second, and scored on Ladouceur’s walk-off single.
The key to the club’s success continues to be its well-rounded game, with pitching and hitting going hand-in-hand.
“There’s just a balance between offence and defence,” noted Van Dorn. “It’s all there. We’re strong up the middle and we have a lot of guys who slug the ball hard.”
It was the team’s fourth league title in six years of existence.
“Some of our opponents are pretty good, but we’ve just been a little bit better,” said the Jays manager.
