Brandon Hunter hits one at bottom of third to send in Jay Cook for the PG Grays   photo 250Sports

Prince George, BC – Jay Cook led the offence, going three for three at the plate, as the Prince George Grays beat the Burnaby Bulldogs 4-3 at the Bid Group Men’s Provincial Baseball Championships at Citizen Field this evening.

Cook scored three runs, including his lead-off homer in the first inning, as the team secured it’s first win at the tournament, after dropping 10-5 to the Kamloops Sun Devils in last night’s opener.

The Grays’ Jessie Dill had a hot hand tonight.  Dill went five-plus innings, giving up just two hits and striking out six.

Photo at right, shows Dill in action at the top of the third inning.

Burnaby kept the game exciting by scoring two at the top of the seventh to cut the lead to 4-3, but Curtis Sawchuk kept the Grays’ play-off hopes alive by getting the final out with the bases loaded to earn the save.

The Grays face the Victoria Mavericks, also 1-1, tomorrow morning at 8am.  Burnaby (0-2) will wind up their round robin against the unbeaten Kamloops Sun Devils at 10:30am.

Here’s a rundown of the tournament, so far:

Game 1:  Kamloops 10  Prince George 5

click here for game wrap

Game 2:  Langley 8  Kelowna 7

Jon Mihac’s sacrifice fly in the 1st extra inning scored Graig Merritt from 3rd, giving the Langley Blaze an 8-7 win over Kelowna Jays.

Game 3:  Trail 4  Nanaimo 2

Kellen Jones scattered 7 hits over 7 innings and went 2 for 3 at the plate, with a homerun as Trail dumped Nanaimo 4-2.

Game 4:  Victoria 3  Burnaby 0

Graham Campbell tossed a three-hit shut-out to lead the defending provincial champs, the Victoria Mavericks, to a 3-0 victory over the Burnaby Bulldogs.

Game 5:  Nanaimo 13  Kelowna 4

Dave Ballance and Charlie Strandlund led the Nanaimo Coalminers’ offence en route to a 13-4 trouncing of the Kelowna Jays.  Ballance and Strandlund each had two hits, scored twice, and drove in two runs.

Game 6:  Kamloops 1  Victoria 0

Pat Brown earned the complete game victory, shutting out the reigning champs on six runs, as the Kamloops Sun Devils edged Victoria 1-0.  With the win, Kamloops became the first team to clinch a play-off berth.