The Nicholas Jacob Law Arrows claimed the Vernon Men’s Baseball League playoff title by grounding the Adanacs 8-1 in Sunday’s final at Marshall Field.
Shelby Hartwig of the Arrows and Geoff Cleaveley of the Adanacs started on the hill with Tyler Pentland opening the Arrows’ scoring in the bottom of the first with an RBI-single.
After Hartwig sat down the Adanacs in order, the Arrows got to Cleaveley in the second. Jodie Bradley drew a bases-loaded walk, Rob Chittick drove in two more runs, and a run-scoring wild pitch put the Arrows up 6-0. The damage was limited with help from Adanacs centre fielder Peter Ortman, who gunned down Chittick at home plate with a sensational throw.
Unable to get through the second, Cleaveley was pulled in favour of workhorse lefty Al Rutherford, who largely limited the damage the rest of the way. The Adanacs got on the board in the top of the fourth, as Ortman drove home Jason Webster with a fielder’s choice.
The Arrows added some insurance in the bottom half, as Nick Jacob collected an RBI-single, followed by Jacob and Tyler Lacktin-Doyle pulling off a double steal to cash the eighth Arrows’ run. From there, Hartwig controlled things the rest of the way, throwing a complete game
The chase for the championship began Friday night as the Adanacs dispatched the District Eatery Outlaws 4-2. The Adanacs moved on to play the first-place Arrows on Saturday, with the Arrows booking their trip to the finals with a 9-3 win.
The Outlaws and Adanacs met once again to determine the other finalist, and the Adanacs did not leave anything up to chance, barging their way to the championship by way of an 11-1 beatdown.
“The league executive would like to congratulate all the teams on our most successful season to date, and would like to thank Dennis Huizinga and Mark Batchelor of Vernon Minor Baseball for their support of the VMBL,” said Cleaveley, who helped organize the league.