Fynn Chester was one pitch away from putting an exclamation mark on his season.
The Victoria Eagles right-handed pitcher had two outs and two strikes when Markus Glowacki ripped a double to left-centre field to snap his no-hit bid.
Chester, who heads into Grade 11 at Lambrick Park in September, had to settle on a 2-0 win over the Okanagan Athletics that qualified the Eagles into the sa国际传媒 Premier Baseball League championship playoffs today at Royal Athletic Park.
It was Chester鈥檚 11th win of the campaign and he was masterful, finishing with the one-hitter.
鈥淚 really thought I had it there. I thought it was going to be a fly ball there to Kieran [Waters] in left field, but he got a hold of one and hit it in the gap,鈥� said Chester. 鈥淚 got to the fifth and sixth innings with a zero still there [under the hit column].
鈥淚 buckled down. It鈥檚 too bad they got the one hit, but I still think I pitched one of the best games I have all year.鈥�
It couldn鈥檛 have come at a better time, too, as the Eagles would later lose 12-2 to the North Shore Twins to slip to 1-2. Chester鈥檚 win, aided by Tanner Hess鈥檚 two-run homer in the first, did get them into the semifinal this morning at 10 against the 2-1 Nanaimo Pirates. The winner of the semi-final will face 2-1 North Shore in the 12:30 p.m. championship final.
Earlier, the Nanaimo Pirates split their two games with a 2-1 win over the Athletics in the morning, using two runs in the first inning and a solid pitching performance from Garrett Goodall.
In the afternoon, the Pirates were clobbered 22-4 by the Twins, who sent 15 batters to the plate in the first inning, using six hits, four walks and an error to bring home 11 runs. Taylor Wright, Brandon Currie and Trevor Fonseca all homered for the Twins. Wright was 3-for-3 with three runs scored and four RBIs.
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