Fleetwood Marlins Win Gold

The Fleetwood Midget Marlins have taken home the ultimate prize this past weekend in Maple Ridge.   Competing in the Western Fastpitch Championships.

The Marlins went through the round robin portion of the tournament undefeated against Saskatchewan #1 ( Jets) , Saskachewan #2 (Selects) , Manitoba #1 and Manitoba #2.  This record entitled them to place first heading into the finals against the equally strong second place team Saskatchewan #1 who they beat in the round robin 9 -5.  This semi final game did not go as well as the previous game and the Marlins lost their only game by a score of 10-0.

With that loss the Marlins had to take the diamond against the Saskachewan Selects in a hard fought game which saw Trevor Thompson take the mound to finish the game off beating  Saskatchewan Selects  and moving on to the gold medal game against Saskatchewan #1 (Jets) . 

Marlins took an early lead 3-1 heading into the third inning when Saskatchewan hit a two run homer which tied the game.  As the game went on into the seventh and final inning with the score tied, Marlins took their bats at the top of the inning with two out, Brandon Peck hit a double, stole third on a wild pitch which brought up Trevor Thompson to the plate.  Trevor hit a hard grounder to second base and with his speed, out ran the play at  first which ultimately scored Brandon from third. 

The inning ended with the next out and that brought up Saskatchewan for their final at bat.  Pitching for the Marlins was Kevin Peck who showed no sign of tiring had their first batter pop fly to Trevor at first for the first out.  Second batter got on with a single, stole second and third.  With two out from another pop fly to third baseman Brandon Peck, the tying run was waiting on third.  Kevin had a full count on the batter when he threw his change up which was swung at and missed. 

Marlins win the gold medal for the first time in Fleetwood, with several of the members competing at their last minor tournament; it was a wonderful way for them to move on to Juniors.

Other notables of the weekend were homeruns by Matthew Bryon, Roderick Simicic,  Kevin Peck, Trevor Thompson and  Michael Thompson. 

The team was lead by the pitching of Brandon Peck, Trevor Thompson, Nicky Levitsky and Kevin Peck.

Members of the championship team are: Matthew Byron, Jamie Kelly, Paul Kelly, Wesley McDonald, Nicky Levitsky, Brandon Peck, Kevin Peck, Roderick Simicic, Michael Thompson, Trevor Thompson, Tyler Tieszen, Dagan Brenner, Coltan Vaughn  Coaches; Sandro Simicic , Rick Peck Managers; Brenda Peck, Don Thompson