KAMLOOPS — The Red Deer Carstar Braves squandered a two-run lead and fell 7-4 to Spruce Grove in a Kamloops Canada Day midget AAA baseball tournament semifinal Sunday.
Dylan Boreman cracked a two-run home run to provide the Braves with an early cushion, Brad Pope drove in a run to make it a 3-2 game for Red Deer and Ty Wagar stroked his second single of the game and then scored to give the Braves a 4-3 lead.
But that was it for the Braves, who gave up four consecutive runs en route to being eliminated from the annual tournament.
Red Deer earned a semifinal berth with an 18-7 thumping of the Edmonton Cardinals, a game in which Wagar started on the Braves’ mound and was relieved by Tristen Hill in the seventh inning.
Levi Moon highlighted a nine-run, fifth inning outburst with a grand slam homer. Moon later drove in two more runs, while Mike Ozga knocked in a pair of runs and Boreman, Parker Booth and Bennett Kary each had an RBI.
The Braves opened the tournament with an 8-2 victory over the host River Dogs and an 8-0 rout of the Okanagan A’s, then dropped a 12-4 decision to White Rock, B.C.
Jesse Kowalchuk drove in two runs against Kamloops, with Moon stroking an RBI single. Boreman was the starting pitcher and Jesse Muirhead closed out the game.
Muirhead went the distance on the Braves’ hill in the shutout win over the A’s. Blake Thompson was the losing pitcher versus White Rock.