Story and Photos by Christian J. Stewart

October 9, 2021, Kelowna, BC – The University of the Fraser Valley Cascades took advantage of every mistake the Victoria Golden Tide made on Saturday morning to come away with a 4-1 win in the second game for both teams at the Canadian College Baseball Conference Fall Championship Tournament at Elks Field in Kelowna.

The Tide’s Brandon Green is all smiles after scoring what turned out to be Victoria’s only run in the second inning Saturday.

Of the Cascade’s four runs, all of them came as a result of Victoria errors, including two runs in the bottom of the first inning, following a two-out throwing error by third baseman Jordon Bond.  The overthrow to first led to one direct run and then an RBI single by Dylan Merritt gave the Cascades an early 2-0 lead.

Tide starter Ethan Dean would not allow an earned run, but would get tagged with the tough loss in the game against the Cascades.

The Tide got one of those runs back in the second inning and had a chance for more, but left the bases loaded in both the first and second innings to let the Cascades off the hook.

The Cascades would get another run in the third inning, this time thanks in part to an error by Tide first baseman Brendan Morrison that kept the inning alive and eventually allowed the Cascade’s Ryan West, who had singled, to score.

Victoria’s Jaxson Cordle slides safely into third base, beating the throw to UFV third baseman Ty Crowe.

In the seventh inning, the Cascades got an insurance run when Josh Berenbaum walked and then stole second. The throw sailed into centre field to give Berenbaum third base and when the ball went under the glove of the Tide’s Tyler Burton, who was backing up the play, Berenbaum kept going to extend the lead to 4-1.

The Cascade’s Sasha Kamenjasevic was brilliant in relief against the Tide, throwing five innings of scoreless relief and getting credit for the 4-1 win.

The Cascades were helped in their win by an impressive relief appearance from Sasha Kamenjasevic, who took over from starter Carter Harbut with two outs and the bases loaded in the second.

Kamenjasevic proceeded to strike out Tide slugger Zeke Holt to end that threat and then put up goose eggs for the next five innings, before being replaced by closer Evan Petersen who struck out five of the six batters he faced to close out the 4-1 win.

The Tide’s Brandon Green twists a double play, one of two the Tide turned on the day.

The Victoria errors overshadowed a decent outing from Victoria starter Ethan Dean who went four full innings, giving up four hits – the Cascade’s only four hits of the day – and two walks and was tagged with the tough loss, despite not giving up an earned run.

Tide pitcher Haldon Craig delivers a pitch against Fraser Valley on Saturday.

Nate Horricks and Haldon Craig were also effective in relief throwing a pair of innings each, striking out six combined in those four innings of work.

For the Tide offensively, they only mustered two hits on the day from Burton and Alex MacLauchlan, with a large part of their offensive threat coming from six hit batters and four walks surrendered by Cascade pitchers.

With a group of Cascade’e eagerly watching, Tide catcher Ryan Whelan awaits a throw to the plate during action in Saturday’s 4-1 UFV win.

With the win, the Cascades improve their record to 2-0 and they can guarantee their spot in the semis with a win over Calgary in their final round robin game at 12:15 pm on Sunday.

For the Tide, the math is simple.  A win over Thompson Rivers in the final round robin game Sunday morning at 9:15 am should mean a trip to the semi-finals later that day.  A loss and they will be relegated to one of the consolation games on Monday morning.

The Cascade outfielders celebrate their 4-1 win over Victoria on Saturday.