Hair Yesterday, Gone Today: Bob Mabee Makes Good
The Victoria Black Eagles had some extra incentive to win last weekend. Coach Bob Mabee told the boys on the bus en route to Cloverdale that if they won all 4 games that weekend, "one of them could use the ugliest sheers they had and cut his hair". That was all the team needed for motivation to win all four games.
Josh Walker was the starting pitcher against Cloverdale in the first of 2 games on Saturday. There were no runs for either team the first 2 innings but Takaki Shinozuka managed to get the first and only run in the third inning. In the fourth inning Justin Giles scores on a passed ball. Jayden Cull and Connor Irvine both score on a single hit by Samir Turner. In the fifth inning, Toni De La Peña hits a single and brings in AJ Sutherland. A balk is called and Josh Walker scores. De La Peña scores on a wild pitch and Cull scores on a hit by Irvine. In the 7 th inning both Sutherland and De La Peña score again leaving a 10 – 0 victory as game 1 is won.
Russell Kelley starts the second game against Cloverdale. Dawson Clark scores Victoria’s first run on a wild pitch. Inning number 2, EJ Baldonaza and Cull score on a single hit by Shinozuka. Kelley hits a double in the 4th, and both he and Irvine score on a hit by Clark who later scores on a hit by Sutherland. De La Peña brings Sutherland in for 6 runs in the 4th. With 2 more in the 5th it’s 11 – 6 and win number 2.
It’s back to Carnarvon on Sunday to face the Nanaimo Pirates where Irvine on the mound as the starting pitcher in the first game. 2 runs for the Eagles in the first inning and 10 in the second. The Pirates scored 1 in the second. The Eagles get 2 more in the 3rd when Walker hits a single which brings in Chad Hegland and Clark. The game is over in the fifth, 14 – 1, win number 3. One more to go.
Leo Jansch is the starter in game 2 against the Pirates. First run of the game goes to Alex Baan-Meiklejohn in the second inning. There are 3 runs brought in by the Eagles in the 3rd inning, one of which is a homerun by Baldonaza. Nanaimo does manage to bring in 2 runs but the final score, and Black Eagles 4th win on the weekend, 9 – 5.
Mabee holds up his end of the bargain and now sports a shaved head shorn of his previously flowing locks. Even better, these key four wins now position the Bantam AAA Black Eagles in fifth place behind Abbotsford, Delta, Cowichan Valley and Richmond.
