In Kamloops on Monday, Aug. 5, the Victoria Mavericks all-star baseball team won the B.C. men’s senior championships for the first time in 13 years.
“We’re ecstatic,” said Mavericks second baseman and coach Jeremy Campbell. “We’ve been at it for a while, so it’s awesome.”
In 2019, the outfit was knocked out of the provincials in the quarterfinals. Pandemic restrictions saw the championships cancelled in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, the Mavericks came back strong, but lost in an extra inning in the semifinals. Last year, they again lost in the semifinals, after their opponent scored a three-run home run.
“A lot of times ... we thought we had the right team ... and it just didn’t happen,” said Campbell. “To win this year, it’s such a satisfying feeling.”
Because the Mavericks are an amateur outfit, players work full-time off the diamond, and that means they weren’t able to celebrate their win in Kamloops.
“We had to leave unfortunately because we had to work on Tuesday,” said Campbell. “All we did was have a beer in the locker room.”
However, the coach said that, in the next few weeks, the team are going to have a party to properly mark the occasion.
Thanks to their victory, the Mavericks are guaranteed a spot in the national championships, which will take place in Regina next August. The event is held so long after the provincials to give players enough leeway to coordinate travel and book time off work.
Campbell expects that it will cost at least $25,000 to get the team to Sask., and so the players have already started fundraising. Earlier this year, they hosted a raffle with the Victoria Eagles baseball club, raising $59,000. The Mavericks will put 25 per cent of their half towards travel costs.
Victoria is set to host the provincial championships next August, and Campbell hopes this will give them some momentum going into the nationals afterwards.
The coach added that he whole team is looking forward to going to Regina.
“It’s kind of all we talk about every year,” he said. “Everybody’s just so jacked to go.”
