With the Toronto Blue Jays floundering, the Coquitlam Angels may be the best men’s baseball team in Canada.
The Angels, comprised largely of local college players who’ve graduated, recently won Baseball Canada’s senior men’s national championship when the team beat the host Victoria Mavericks 4-2 in the final at Wilson’s Group Stadium in Victoria.
The Angels got all the runs they needed in the bottom of the first inning when outfielder Grant Malm hit a three-run homer off Victoria pitcher Brandon Chernoff.
The Mavericks got one of those runs back in their half of the third inning, another in the fifth and were threatening more with the bases loaded and only one out. But Luke Manuel came to the mound in relief of Coquitlam’s starting pitcher Braeden Allemann and struck out the next two batters.
Angels’ infielder Taylor Lawrence then doubled home Jeff Bouchard in the bottom of the sixth inning to give Coquitlam its margin of victory.
Allemann earned the win, allowing two runs on three hits in four-and-a-third innings. He also struck out two batters. Manuel pitched two and two-thirds innings in relief.
Coquitlam, the second representative team from British Columbia to win the senior championship in a row after the Burnaby Bulldogs claimed last year’s title, reached the final after a dramatic 2-1 win in extra innings over New Brunswick in the semi final.
In fact, the Angels finished the tournament with only one blemish on its record, a 9-6 loss in the second round to Ilderton, the championships’ second representative from Ontario.
Coquitlam catcher Kyle Iwata was named the tournament’s top defensive player.
