A win at the national level has quickly transformed the Mount Seymour Little League junior team into Team Canada, which is set to play at the 2024 Little League Baseball World Series starting this weekend.
On Wednesday evening, the North Vancouver team of 13 and 14 year olds claimed a commanding 22-11 victory against Quebec in the Canadian Junior Little League Championship final in Lethbridge, Alta.
In that game, Kyle Felderer hit two home runs including a grand slam in the first inning. With a three-run home run at the bottom of the sixth, Sam Boon walked it off, securing a win by mercy for his team.
Felderer went two for three, with two runs and five runs batted in. Boon went two for four, with two runs and three RBI. And Brett Kristensen went two for four, with two runs and three RBI.
On the mound, Kolton Ogawa pitched 3.2 innings, with four hits, six runs, three earned runs, five walks and five strikeouts. Niko Jokic relieved Ogawa after that, pitching 2.1 innings with five hits, five runs, two earned runs, three walks and one strikeout.
The national victory came after a nail-biting semifinal on Tuesday, when MSLL was down 5-6 against Team Atlantic. With the pressure on, MSLL’s Emmett Kirkby hit a two-run single to walk it off in the bottom of the seventh inning, taking his team to the final.
As national champions, MSLL automatically qualified for the Junior World Series event, which kicks off Aug. 3 in Taylor, Mich.
Dashing back to North Vancouver from Alberta, figuring out flights and accommodations for Michigan along the way, Ben Boon – speaking on behalf of team manager, and car driver, Jenny Boon – said there was a lot of celebration when the boys became national champs.
“This was the dream, for the boys to make it to nationals,” he said. “And to go beyond that was beyond their expectations.… They were having the time of their lives last night.”
After a late night trip to McDonald's, most of the boys headed to Calgary, where they’re staying in a hotel to get some rest before flying south of the border Friday morning. On Saturday, the boys will be fitted with Team Canada uniforms and gear in preparation for their first game against Australia on Sunday at 11 a.m. PT.
In the double-elimination tournament, eight international teams will play at least two games each. The winner will face the best of eight U.S. teams in the Junior World Series final.
It’s going to be an amazing experience that most of them would never have expected to do, Boon said.
“They’re going to be a part of a huge global tournament,” he said. “They get to live in hotels and be fed and watered and looked after for the next 10 days which is rare … a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
For the team’s success, Boon credits coaches Ken Anderson and Dave Kristensen, and head coach Manabu Ogawa in particular.
“He has been such an amazing stalwart supporter of the boys for years. He’s known most of them since they started baseball in kindergarten,” Boon said.
Ogawa is the founder of the Asahi Baseball Association in Vancouver.
“He always said, ‘You boys can make the World Series if we play as a team,’” Boon said. “His leadership has got us there.”
