Barry Aden is quickly becoming the Phil Jackson of the Kamloops International Baseball Tournament.

Aden, the manager of the Seattle Studs, won KIBT for the 10th time Sunday when his side dumped the Everett Merchants 6-1 in front of about 250 fans at NorBrock Stadium.

In the tournament’s 38 years, Aden has won seven titles as a manager and three as a player, dating back to 1986. He has a few to go before catching Jackson, the head coach of the L.A. Lakers who has won 13 NBA championships, 11 as a coach, but Aden certainly has made his mark on KIBT.

This year’s Studs squad, which scored 43 runs while allowing 13 in five KIBT games, has to be considered among the best.

“We’re putting together some great baseball games,” said Aden, whose Studs have won three of the last four tournaments. “We’ve had a great summer, we’re 30-4 and we haven’t lost since June 16, and we’ve been doing it convincingly.”

On the other side of the field, Harold Pyette was watching another team celebrate the KIBT title for the third straight year. Pyette’s Merchants lost to the Alaska-Midnight Sun Goldpanners in 2009 and the Studs in 2008.

When Pyette was given the runner-up trophy, he jokingly said, “We’ve got our name on it about 20 times.” It was actually the fourth time, all in the last six years, to go along with triumphs in 1991 and 1992.

This year’s Merchants were done in by their lack of clutch hitting — Everett left 14 men on base Sunday, 10 of them in scoring position.

“We battled the best we could, which was evident with all the people we had on base,” Pyette said. “We couldn’t get it to drop when we needed it to, or it would have been a different game.”

It was Seattle’s Mark Rockey who delivered the knockout punch — he slugged a two-run home run to left in the third inning, making it 4-0.

He went 3-for-4 with three RBI — he also drove in Seattle’s first run, in the first inning — to finish the tournament with a .611 average, winning him the trophy for top hitter. He also won the home-run title (two), RBI award (13) and, in the no-brainer of the year, the MVP.

“I had a terrible tournament last year, I only had one hit, out of 20 or something,” said Rockey, 22. “It was a bad tournament, but I redeemed myself this year.”

Everett, which beat the Red Deer Riggers 11-3 in Sunday’s semifinal, loaded the bases in the top of the final’s first inning, but couldn’t push anyone across. The Merchants put another runner on third base in the second inning, but couldn’t push him across either.

Meanwhile, Seattle scored a run in each of the first two innings, both on two-out hits. Four of the Studs’ six runs — Rockey’s homer was the exception — came with two out.

“We had a lot of two-out hits and we also had the home run,” said Aden, who was named top coach for the sixth time. “We had a lot of opportunities to put the other team on their heels.”

Everett had more baserunners than Seattle, as the Merchants managed eight hits, four walks and four hit-batsmen. Seattle had only nine hits and one hit batter, but only stranded four, and only one of them was in scoring position.

“We stranded 14 runners and didn’t get the key hits,” said Pyette. “They evidently did, in a 6-1 win. We had our opportunities . . . we just couldn’t get people home, couldn’t get the key hit.”

Chris Seybold took the loss, giving up six runs, five of them earned, in six innings. Karl Myers and Bobby LeCount each pitched an inning in relief for Everett.

JT Zink earned the victory, striking out seven while allowing one run in six innings, and was named the tournament’s top pitcher. Taylor Thompson pitched the final three innings, hitting two batters, walking two and allowing one hit while striking out three.

“We brought him in last night to pitch this game,” Aden said of Zink, who was coaching a 16-18 boys team at a tournament. “That is exactly what we expected of him — he hasn’t lost a game in two or three years.”

FOUL BALLS: The Kamloops Sun Devils went 1-3 in the round-robin — they lost 6-1 to the Studs and beat the St. Albert Tigers 9-0 on Saturday — and missed out on the money. . . . Kamloops’ Duaine Bowles had an excellent tournament, hitting a smooth .536, and was named top catcher. . . . St. Albert was named most sportsmanlike team, Seattle’s Kyle Boe was named Mr. Hustle and Everett’s Braden Degamo was the top defensive player. . . . Seattle earned $6,500 for the victory, while Everett got $4,000 and Red Deer picked up $1,500 for finishing third.

mhunter@kamloopsnews.ca