Saturday brought very un-spring like cool temperatures but the action at Queen Elizabeth park heated things up.
The Nelson Angels took the field for the morning game and behind the pitching of Justin Lasichuk, Reese Tambellini and Brenden Vulcano shut out the visiting Castlegar squad 10-0.
Quin Hall found his swing at the plate with two home runs and that brought in seven runs.
The win made up for their 8-3 loss to Beaver Valley Friday night. The Beaver Valley team looks to be one of the best teams this season in the West Kootenay Little League Major division. The BV Yankees got off to a 5-0 lead on the first inning and their pitchers Dawson Den Biesen and Dallas Cox kept the Angels from mounting any kind of offense.
Saturday afternoon saw the Grand Forks Blazers come to town for a double header hosted by the Little League Minor division Nelson Pirates. The Blazers took both games from our Nelson Tigers last weekend so the Pirates didn’t take the game lightly.
Charles Cursiton lead the way for Nelson with a home run and triple at the plate and Johnny Michalchuk pitched three scoreless innings helping take both games from the Blazers 8-6 and 11-8.
The Pirates lost to the Nelson Cardinals last Sunday so coach Doug Curiston likes the improvement seen from the Little Leaguers this early in the season. Great defense at first base from Reid Vulcano and the Pirates catchers Joshua Marsden and Nathan Gaffran kept the Boundary runners from scoring and mounting any comeback.
Sunday morning saw the best weather of the year, but the Nelson Tigers were short a couple of their older players and lost to Castlegar 16-9.
Coach Purdy saw the bats come alive for the Tigers, but the pitching wasn’t awake yet and Castlegar took advantage of it.
The Nelson Baseball Association received a $2,000 grant this winter that was put to good use in training a new core of umpires.
Some of the new graduates Brendan Martel, Kelly Vrugteven, Justin Daloise and Garnet Dupessie all worked their first games behind the plate. They experienced a few nerves and lack of sleep the night before the game but settled down and did a great job.
Association president Larry Martel really likes what he saw from the young umpires.
“We have a very strong group of adults and teenagers trained to be umpires for our association now and they all really enjoyed the experience,” he said. “This will make baseball an even better way to spend time on a spring afternoon.”