Batallion proud to be back at Junior Little League Championship

By Lethbridge Herald on August 2, 2023.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The South Vancouver Little League Batallion are not only the Team BC representative for a second year in a row, but are the defending champions going into this week’s Junior Canadian Little League championship this week at Spitz Stadium.

However, the defending national champs have a  roster and head coach that are all new this time around and the team is off to an 0-2 start.

“Well obviously we’re proud to be here,” said Batallion coach Kevin Hunter.

“It’s no joke getting out of B.C. to come and represent. So, you know, we’ve come together as a team nice and facing national competition, it’s a breath of slightly stale air because they don’t let you get off light with anything. The mistakes get exposed, so you have to come with a really good mental attitude, and your glove on the ground, and you (have) got to hit the ball, and you (have)got to run hard, and you (have) got to play error-free ball and so far we haven’t done that but I know we can. You know we’re ready to play the next game after an 0-2 start. We’ve got to buckle down and get it going.”

Hunter agreed the team was in an early hole.

“But when your back is against the wall, you find out exactly what you’re made out of don’t you ,” said Hunter.

“It’s critical to be able to respond to adversity and it’s something that we’ve  talked about all year and we’ve always done it. So my expectation is that we’ll do the same in this environment. So, yeah, I’m really excited about the next steps for us.”

Last year’s coached relayed the experience this year’s squad prior to their arrival.

“They just talked about the experience,” he said.

“It’s all they did was  talk about soaking up the experience and making sure that, you know, you made friends with  and interacted with the opposition teams as much as you could off the field and even on the field. So we had  the (former) head coach (Ron Laquaglia) come and speak with us and honestly his speech (was) 15 minutes long ,but he cut right to the chase on a lot of this stuff. It’s just about the experience and really understanding that it’s not a right to be here at all, it’s a privilege. So to soak that up in the right way and be humble baseball players, and make connections across the country, and represent your province and  your family well and take the time to just really sit back and soak it up a bit.”

The message for the team is, “I think you (have) got to go out there and you absolutely have to work for someone else other than yourself,” said Hunter.

“You have to play this game and operate in this game for a bigger picture. If it’s just about you and about your batting average and about how many ground balls and how many  outs you can make, I just don’t think you get there as a team.”

B.C. will look to get in the win column today against Ontario at 3:30 p.m.