A Terrace shortstop played a big role in a Williams Lake fastball team’s recent provincial gold medal.
Mason Richey travelled to U-14 rep fastball provincial championships in Surrey July 11 - 13 with the Williams Lake Prospects, and coach Brad Alexander said Richey – picked up to play because the team was short on players – was one of the team’s top players and a key part of the A division championship win.
“He fit right in with our team, he was dominating at the plate and was excellent at short stop,” Alexander said. “He was even called upon to pitch and give our only pitcher a break.”
A true underdog story – a number of the players on the team hadn’t played ball before and the team was supposed to play in the ‘C’ division but was bumped up – the team had a tough round robin go, but once they broke into the semi-finals, they began hitting it out of the park all the way to the final.
In the semi-finals, Williams Lake beat the Sooke Drillers 15-5 with Richey batting three for three with one home run and two singles.
And the gold medal game saw Williams Lake beat the strong 100 Mile ‘N Hour team – the favourites to win – 15-14. In the final, Richey, who is also a standout hockey player, hit two home runs, a triple, two singles and seven RBIs.
He also won the longest hit in the skills competition by batting the ball 253 feet.