MSLL post season teams provided the opportunity for many kids to continue playing baseball well into the month of July:
Super 8s
For this first time this year MSLL entered a Super 8s team in the NVC tournament. This was a team formed with 8 year old players from the Rookie Senior division. The tournament was held at Sowden Park and followed similar rules to our RS division. The Super 8s had a great time – despite facing some tough competition from teams from Highlands and Dunbar (and some teams allowing 9 year old on their rosters due to the LL age transition). MSLL had a really close game against Forest Hills just losing to finish the round robin 0-3.
In the consolation game they played NVC and game away with a resounding 14-1 win. The tournament was lots of fun and MSLL will look to enter again next year.
Summer Ball
MSLL ran the Summer Ball program again this year for players who had just completed Rookie Senior. This program adds 6 weeks of additional baseball consisting of one practice and a pickup game each week. Many thanks to the coaches and parents who stepped up to help run this program.
9 Selects
The 9 Selects All Star team completed in the Lynn Valley Canada Day invitational tournament. They started with a tough match up against Jericho Little League, but gained confidence in the afternoon to come away with a narrow 8-6 to a strong South Van team. In their final game they game back from an 8-0 deficit to beat NVC 11-10.
The team have continued practicing and playing exhibition games through July and are currently playing in the Last Chance Tournament in Lynden Washington. The players were all very much looking forward to playing a travel tournament.
9/10 All Stars
The 9/10 All Stars started the district tournament with a strong win over Howe Sound. In their second game they lost heavily to a very strong Highlands team. They bounced back to win the remaining games in the round robin to finish in second place. This resulted in a semi final match up with Lynn Valley. Unfortunately they lost 10-7 to Lynn Valley in the semi. Highlands went on to win not only the district tournament but also the Provincial title after beating Hastings in the final.
The MSLL 9/10s also played in the Whistler Sea to Sky Invitational tournament. They had an excellent tournament going through undefeated to claim the winners trophy.
11s Tournament Team
The 11s tournament team started by playing in the Forest Hills tournament hosted at Eldon Park. They started out with a strong 12-1 win over Highland, before coming back to earth with a heavy loss at the hands of Hastings 11s. Their final game was a narrow loss to South Van who went on to lose in the final (to Hastings)!
The teams played and won exhibition games against Forest Hills and Lynn Valley in order to get ready for the Drew Henderson tournament at Whalley. A tough draw saw them with games against White Rock, Hastings and Whalley (all loses) and a much closer but eventual loss 3-2 loss to Lynn Valley.
Majors All Stars
The Majors All Stars started with a strong game over Howe Sound winning 10-0. The second game against West Van was close all the way before ending when the tying run was called out at home on a really close play. The next game was an equally intense match up against Lynn Valley. This game also ended with the trying run called out at home – although in this case MSLL were on the winning side!
Unfortunately the team had a tough game against Forest Hills meaning that they needed a win against Highlands to advance to the semis. The game started badly with MSLL giving up 6 runs in the top of the first before finding a way to score 6 in the bottom on the inning to tie up the game. The rest of the game was close, but Highlands eventually prevailed and as a result MSLL were eliminated.
Lynn Valley won the District title to advance to the Provincial tournament.
Juniors All Stars
The Juniors All Stars competed in the Provincial tournament held in Whalley. They did not advance, and the Whalley team won the tournament to advance to Canadian Nationals. Several of the Junior All Stars players played on the winning MSLL intermediate team in the Whistler Sea to Sky tournament.
Seniors All Stars
The Seniors All Stars completed in the Provincial tournament held in North Van. They did not advance and the Whalley team won the tournament to advance to Canadian Nationals.
Bigs All Stars
This year District 5 formed a district Bigs team with players from NVC, MSLL, LV, FH and WV. The team beat the favourite D3 team in the BC Provincials and advanced to the Canadian Nationals in Calgary.
The team went 5-1 in the round robin and defeated the Praries teams in the semis to advance to the final. They got off to a great start in the final with 10 runs in the bottom of the 1st, however Calgary Host team fought back hard putting up runs each inning to eventually take the game 19-13. It was a great run by the Bigs team and they game very close to advancing to the World Series.