Early to bed, and early rise helped the Burnaby Bulldogs bring their first-ever Canadian senior men's baseball title back to the West Coast.

The Bulldogs survived three early morning get-ups, including a semifinal win over New Brunswick that avenged the club's only loss of the four-day tournament in Dartmouth, N.S. Aug. 29.

Burnaby won that game against New Brunswick 6-2. They then took the field in the championship final later in the day against the host team, beating Dartmouth 1-0 in front of a partisan home crowd.

"It's very tough to win," said Bulldogs general manager David Laing. "Everyone gave real attention to the task at hand. It was a testament to our organization. It was also real tough playing in front of a home crowd of 4,000 and not one of them was cheering for Burnaby. It was all about the home team."

Steve McCrea pitched a three-hit gem for the Bulldogs, going seven innings and striking out six.

"It was unbelievable. It was a real treat to play that well," Laing added. "Our pitching was outstanding and our bullpen was solid when we needed them."

Kevin Atkinson and Cory Stang both brought power to the plate, while six other players batted over .300 in the championships, including a total of nine home runs as a club, Laing said.

"It was just a great effort from everyone."

Burnaby is one part of what remains of the three-team Pacific Metro Baseball League, along with Coquitlam and Langley.

This season, the Lower Mainland league loosely affiliated with three other B.C. senior clubs - Kelowna, Kamloops and Nanaimo - and with the three American teams from the Pacific International League.

Laing expects the teams involved to cooperate again next season.

He also believes that the exposure of a national championship could even help grow the senior game a bit locally.

"I do. Every young guy who is coming up to this level of play won't have to do very much to see there is a place to play," Laing said.

The exposure might even have the effect of attracting interest from other jurisdictions to participate in the elite men's baseball league, Laing added.