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The long trip to Kelowna on the weekend proved to be just the kind of getaway the Victoria Eagles were looking for.
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Winless in their first five B.C. Premier Baseball League games this season, the Eagles found their wings against the Okanagan Athletics at Elks Stadium, winning three of four games. They were unfortunate to be heading for the ferry without a sweep of a pair of doubleheaders.
The Eagles outscored the A’s 34-9 and outhit (32-14) their hosts, who helped the Victoria cause by committing 16 errors in the four games.
The lone Athletics’ victory (7-2) came in the first game on Sunday as they took advantage of six walks issued by Eagles starter Hayden Wilcox to score six runs in the first inning. The A’s also overcame four errors and another sketchy day at the plate to secure their fourth win in 10 starts this season.
Starting pitcher, Kade Kozak, evened his record to 1-1 by scattering four hits over 5 2/3 innings of work and striking out seven Victoria batters. He also gave up five bases on balls.
The Athletics managed just four hits of their own, including a triple of Jackson Borne, a double by Owen Alstad and singles from James Fischer and Brayden Beacom.
In the final game of the four-game weekend series on Sunday, the A’s could muster just three hits of Victoria’s wire-to-wire Noah Doorschot, while the Eagles soared with 11 hits off Okanagan starter, Ethan Soroka, to claim a 12-2 victory and earn an early mercy-ruled departure for home.
Borne smacked a pair of doubles while Dylan Faulkner drove in a run to provide the meager highlights for the Athletics.
Saturday’s opener was a sign of things to come as the winless Eagles broke out of their early slump with a 9-5 victory that included 10 hits and seven runs over six innings off Okanagan starter Keaton Mandryk. Soroka drove in two runs with a single, while the other runs-batted-in came from Faulkner and Markus Glowacki.
Six Athletics errors led to five Victoria runs in the first two innings of the second game on Saturday that saw the A’s fall 6-0.
The A’s Carter Morris of Vernon, looking for his third straight shutout victory, allowed just one earned run to the Eagles over the first five innings, but couldn’t do anything about the five boots behind him.
The only Athletics to connect for hits — all singles — were Colton Schaper-Kotter, Beacom, Mandryk and Borne.
Things certainly don’t get any easier for the Athletics as they head to Langley this weekend for a four-game set with the perennial powerhouse Blaze (6-4).
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Immaculata grad going for Canadian pro card at Q-school
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
The goal is to treat it like any other golf tournament, which of course is easier said than done. After all, Q-School is not any other tournament. Play badly here and you don’t move on and play the next week. You don’t play at all.
Kelowna’s John Mlikotic knows this, but hopes he can keep those thoughts out of his head when he tees it up in today’s first round of the fifth and final Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada qualifying school at Crown Isle Resort in Courtenay.
Mlikotic, a 23-year-old Immaculata High School graduate, will be one of the rookies in the 120-man field at Crown Isle. After graduating from Simon Fraser University in 2016, he worked as an assistant pro at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf Course in Kelowna.
He spent much of this past winter in Arizona, working on his game and preparing for what he hopes will be the beginning of his new life as a touring pro. “This will be my first Q-School so it will definitely be a new experience,” he says.
“I am just trying to make it feel like a normal round of golf, or four rounds. I am preparing the same way I have for every tournament. I just want to play my best, right. You obviously want to do that this week, especially. I just want to keep it regular and normal like every other tournament.
“I think it is a great golf course and the competition is going to be good. Based on the scores last year, I don’t think it’s so much a problem of being capable of shooting the rounds that I need to get my card but more the stage that it is on and controlling my nerves and stuff like that.”
Mlikotic feels like he has his game in good order heading to Crown Isle. “I am definitely playing some of he best golf of my life,” he says. “I think I feel ready. I won a Vancouver Golf Tour event two weeks ago at Pagoda Ridge (in Langley) and it was good to get a win under my belt heading to Q-School.”
The top 40 players at Crown Isle will earn some status on the 2017 Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada circuit, which begins June 1-4 with the Freedom 55 Financial Open at Point Grey Golf & Country Club in Vancouver. But the real goal will be to finish inside the top 16.
The Golf BC Championship will be played at Gallagher’s Golf and Country Club June 15-18.am
The medalist at this week’s tourney earns exempt status for the entire tour, while those finishing second through fifth are exempt through the first eight events. Those finishing sixth through 16th are exempt through the first four events of the season.
Last year, it took a 72-hole score of three-under to tie for 16th place. Mlikotic doesn’t think he needs to shoot the lights out, just play solid golf and avoid the big numbers. “That is the goal, keep the big numbers off the scorecard and make a few birdies here and there,” he says. “I think I am very capable of shooting numbers like that, I just think it is more a matter of the stage we are playing on and controlling the nerves. We know what we are playing for.”
Mlikotic got a taste of the Mackenzie Tour when he received a sponsor’s exemption into last summer’s Golf BC Championship at Gallagher’s Canyon. He missed the 36-hole cut by one shot. “I missed the cut there but I played well and got some good experience. It is definitely a tournament I can draw on when I need a little confidence boost, just the way I handled my nerves there and kind of embraced it. If I can do that at Q-School I think I’ll be fine.”
Mlikotic was a member of the 2015 SFU men’s golf team that finished fifth at the NCAA Division II national championships. Two of his former SFU teammates, Burnaby’s Mike Belle and Bret Thompson of Winnipeg, are also in the Crown Isle field this week.
The field includes 29 Canadians, including Keith Martin of Kelowna, Troy Bulmer of Vernon and Brady Stead of Vernon.
Midget Sun Devils still atop standings after sweep of Vernon
The Kelowna Sun Devils will be looking for more of the same when they play host to the Vernon Canadians in B.C. Midget AAA (18U) baseball play this weekend at Edith Gay Park.
A deep Sun Devils roster combined for 25 hits in Vernon on the weekend to record 11-7 and 14-6 victories en route to boosting their first-place record to 9-1.
In the opener, Noah Ringness-Law tripled in a 4-for-5 plate performance and stole two bases to lead the Kelowna squad that stroked 17 hits overall. Kurtis Wall added three hits, including a triple, while Nathan Ringness-Law, Matt Fuchs and Jay Taylor all contributed a pair of singles.
Starting pitcher, Gavin Barrett picked up his third straight win, allowing four earned runs while striking out three Vernon batters. Nathan Ringness-Law earned the save, striking out the side in the seventh inning.
Eighteen hits, four of which came from Nathan Ringness-Law, highlighted the Sun Devils’ win in the second game. Ringness-Law also drove in three runs and stole seven bases. Fuchs and Spencer Klassen both finished with two singles and two runs-batted-in while other two-hit efforts came from Barrett, and Jackson Sowerby. Noah Ringness-Law hit a double and drove in three runs.
Rookie Dreyton Nelmes went five strong innings on the hill and gave up just one earned run while recording four strikeouts. Nathan Ringness-Law once again came in as the closer, pitching two shutout innings.
The Sun Devils and Canadians (1-9) will continue their Okanagan rivalry on Saturday with a doubleheader at Edith Gay Park. Games begin at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.
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