Duncan Dodgers claimed the championship of the annual Larry Hopwo Mosquito Baseball Tournament at the Chemainus Ball Park, beating the Ladysmith White Sox in Sunday’s final.
Tri-Port Angels won the battle for third place in the 13-team event for 10- and 11-year-olds over the Ladysmith A’s.
It was a great three days of baseball, beginning Friday evening and continuing to Sunday afternoon in ideal conditions.
The host Chemainus Reds played their hearts out, but ended up losing all four of their games. Only the Cardinals overpowered them in the first game 9-0.
The Reds were otherwise right in the thick of their other three games before narrowly falling short 9-8 to Tri-Port, 10-8 to the Duncan Astros and 11-7 against the Ladysmith Mariners.
The Reds had a tough schedule with back-to-back games Friday evening and then an early game Saturday morning before closing it out Saturday afternoon. They didn’t play on Sunday.
“We played three before a lot of teams had played two,” noted Reds’ coach Jim Jaggers, who’s also the vice president for the Chemainus and District Baseball Association.
He was proud of all the players on the roster.
“Three of the games were pretty competitive,” he said. “The kids played hard and had fun - that’s the most important part.
“Of the 12 on our roster, one was a call-up so he’s actually an eight-year-old and four never played before.”
The players weren’t dejected at all about the results and not getting into the win column.
“The team, in general, heads held high all the time,” observed Jaggers. “To me, that’s more important than single accolades for the kids. As a whole, they all gave a good effort.”
The tournament format had each team playing four games, with the top four making the playoffs.
Jaggers said his team had two more regular season games remaining before going into the playoffs with Ladysmith, Duncan and Lake Cowichan teams starting June 10.