LV Rogers high school baseball coach Ron Mace returned to the Kootenays last week with a silver medal from the 50-plus baseball national championships in Burlington, Ontario.
Mace joined a team made up of the best veteran ball players in the province on Team BC.
The tournament started with BC losing a close contest to the squad from Red Deer. Mace played a key role in the game when earned an RBI with a suicide squeeze bun in the sixth inning to give Team BC a two run lead. A fielding error in the bottom of the sixth with the bases loaded lead to three runs and Red Deer’s 5-4 victory.
The BC club got on track in the second game when they took on the Pleasant Valley Lakers from Nova Scotia. BC scored a 12-6 win with Mace collecting three RBIs.
The offence continued in the third game of the round robin when BC took on the Ottawa Braumeisters. Mace lead the team going 2-for-3 at the plate with three RBIs. The local also came in to pitch the fifth and sixth innings which helped seal the 10-3 victory.
Team BC’s 2-1 record was good enough to put them in the semi-finals where they were matched up against Oakville. Mace again contributed to the team’s success going 1-for-2 with two RBIs as BC cruised to the final with a 13-3 win.
The final was a rematch of the first game, but this time it was all Red Deer. Mace started the game off optimistically with a lead off single and run scored in the first inning. That was about as good as BC could muster, however, as the Alberta club pounded BC 11-1.