It was a busy weekend of action at Queen Elizabeth Park as Nelson Baseball Association teams engaged in early season action.
It started with a Little League major game with the 11-12 year old Nelson Angels were hosting Castlegar. Solid pitching from Quinn Hall lead the Angels to a win in their first game of the season. Only one Castlegar batter managed to get on base in Hall’s first three innings of work. Justin Lasichuk came and preserved the 9-2 win.
The afternoon saw the Babe Ruth division (13-15 year olds) take to the Fairview diamond with the Nelson Diamondbacks hosting the Trail Dodgers in a double header.
The Diamondbacks are the West Kootenay Baseball Association’s youngest team with only one returning player from last year. Despite a solid pitching performance by veteran Braeden Zarikoff, Nelson couldn't score enough runs and lost a close 4-2 decision.
The Diamondbacks had put up 16 runs versus Castlegar and the Trail Nationals in their first two games of the season, but the Dodgers pitchers were too much on Saturday.
The back half of the double header got very lopsided early with too many fielding errors allowing Trail to score six runs in the first inning and eventually came away with an easy 15-2 win.
The weather was perfect for baseball for the association's first Saturday of action. Sunday saw cooler temperatures and more baseball.
In the morning the Little League minor division (9-11 year olds), the Nelson Cardinals hosted the Nelson Pirates. The Cardinals, behind Alek McMillan’s strong pitching, grabbed an 8-0 lead after three innings then held a late Pirates rally. The final was 8-4.
The association then took the diamond for a team evaluation game between the two rookie teams (7-8 year olds), the Yankees and Blue Jays. Association president Larry Martel ran the short practice and two inning game for some our youngest players and newest coaches.
The rookie division works on baseball skills and set up games between each other and will get in some games with Kaslo this season. Kaslo has been vacant from the local baseball mix for six years and the addition of a team on the north end of Kootenay Lake is a welcome one.