Diamonds and blades

These days, Duncan Blades is comfortable swinging a wooden bat with the Victoria Mariners.

But Blades is part of a new generation of Victoria players coming through the ranks of the midget premier league.

Blades has the leadoff hitter and voice of the midget premier club since 2006, the year the league switched from aluminum bats to oak wood bats (a trend in amateur baseball throughout North America).

For Blades, a 17-year-old in the Lambrick Park Diamond for Excellence academy and a third year Mariner, the switch to wood bats is a natural part of his game.

“Actually, they use wood bats where I’m going to college next year,” Blades said during batting practice Tuesday at Henderson Park. The team was preparing for this weekend’s homestand, a pair of doubleheaders. Saturday they’ll host the North Delta Blue Jays and Sunday the Abbotsford Cardinals.

The college that Blades is referring to is Salt Lake City Community College in Utah, where he’s accepted a scholarship to play with their varsity Bruins for the 2008-09 season.

The Bruins scouted Blades at a tournament in Arizona last summer as a member of Team B.C. They didn’t win that particular tourney but his efforts were enough to get him noticed. Blades did, however, help the team win the 2007 Canada Cup last summer in Quebec City.

College greats Mike Saunders and Kyle Orr are the benchmark examples of who’s come out of the Lambrick and Mariner’s partnership, a path many Mariners hope to follow.

While Blades says the future for him right now is all about baseball, he stresses the importance of getting a balanced course load while at college.

“If the opportunity comes up (to play pro ball) I’ll wait until I finish university.”

But it’s a long season for the Mariners before Blades heads anywhere.

So far in league play the Mariners are 6-4, and Blades’ .281 batting average and .323 on base percentage is modest. Not included in the stats from this year are tournaments in Langley and Kamloops where the M’s went a combined 8-2.

The team’s schedule calls for 50 league games, plus a handful of tournaments. If they do well in the playoffs they can easily play over 100 games.

Blades is comfortable and confident with the task at hand. “We should win it,” said Blades, referring to the league and province championship.

The group of players spend nearly every day of the week together between school and the academy and their commitment to the Mariners.

It’s Blades who does most of the talking on and off the field.

“(Duncan’s) a great leader, the captain of the team,” said first year pitcher Alex Gibson. “He’s always trying to get us going. If we’re losing or we screw up he’s always there to pick us up, patting our backs.”

sports@vicnews.com