Revenge never tasted so sweet.
In the two previous Lower Mainland Over-30 Baseball League playoff championships, the Howe Sound Hounds had the Burnaby Blue Jays number, rolling off back-to-back titles.
This year, it was Burnaby’s turn.
The Blue Jays capped a near-perfect season Sunday with a 9-3 victory over Howe Sound at Robert Burnaby Park, clinching their second title in four years.
The pitching tandem of Jeff Weisgerber and Jeff Ammer held the visiting Hounds to just one earned run over nine innings, and helped steady the squad after Burnaby fell behind 2-0 early in the game.
Cranking a pair of home runs for three RBI was Reid Wildeman, doing a decent Josh Donaldson impression with the stick.
A key turning point, from manager Rod Van Dorn’s vantage point, came in the third inning with the game tied 2-2. Howe Sound put runners at second and third with one out. That’s when a Hounds’ batter lifted a deep fly to centrefield, where Marc Noble caught it and threw it home, where catcher Tim Wilkins tagged out the runner.
“He nailed the runner at the plate with a bullet (throw), and that kind of deflated them and really gave us a boost,” said Van Dorn.
Burnaby would take the lead in the bottom of the third and never looked back.
The Blue Jays finished the season with an 18-0-1 record.
