Knights reach Bantam final

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This article was published 02/07/2012 (5129 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marshal Burgess had a fantastic day in the Brandon Bantam AAA Knights’ Division 1 semifinal at the UCT Canada Day Classic at Simplot Millennium Park on Sunday, but he’s hoping for a better feeling today.

Burgess pitched a complete game no-hitter, striking out 10 batters along the way, and went 3-for-3 at the plate with a triple, one RBI and scored twice as Brandon beat the North Winnipeg Pirates 8-0 and reached the tournament final. Burgess, who was moved to the leadoff spot for the game, gave a lot of credit to his teammates behind him for his success on the mound.

He just hopes the Knights can continue playing well and win their home tournament against South Central today at 3:30 p.m.

“It’s always better winning it in front of your home crowd,” he said. “It would just be that much more special. A title is great, but a title at home is better.”

Sunday’s semifinal wasn’t as lopsided as the score made it appear. Brandon took a 2-0 lead in the first inning, but couldn’t add to it until the bottom of the fifth when they scored a pair of runs.

The Knights exploded for four more runs in the sixth — two on a home run by James Shearer and another with Mitchell Lyall’s first dinger of the season — to put the game out of reach.

Brandon’s tournament opener on Saturday was also tight as it was tied 1-1 going into the fifth inning. However, they rallied for three more runs to beat St. James 4-1. Burgess, Shearer and Ashton Anderson all doubled and drove in runs. Anderson had three singles and three RBIs later that day as Brandon beat Interlake 12-2 to go 2-0 in its pool and advance to the Division 1 playoffs.

Head coach Brad Schoonbaert thought his team had a chance to reach the final before the event, but he’s expecting another tough game to close out the three-day event.

“There’s four or five (teams) on any given day that you never know who’s going to win,” he said. “We’re down to two now and we’ll see who’s ready this weekend.”

“If our pitching and defence is as good as it’s been the rest of the weekend, it will be a heck of a game,” he continued.

Meanwhile, the Westman-based Midwest Bantam AAA team has reached the Division 2 championship against St. James today at 1 p.m.

Midwest beat Boni Vital 14-4 in its Division 2 semifinal on Sunday. Kain Kramer pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowed six hits and struck out seven to pick up the win. Morgan Geekie had three hits and came around to score three times for Midwest, which scored four runs in the first and fourth innings before putting up six more in the seventh. Keenan Lewis also had three hits and scored once.

Midwest went 1-1 in the group round on Saturday. Chad Kilimnik drove in a pair of runs in the first inning of Midwest’s 11-1 win over Yorkton. Riley Shamray scored twice in Midwest’s 5-3 loss to Winnipeg South later that day.

» cjaster@brandonsun.com