As we get farther into the summer months, baseball teams from across the region have been putting their best foot forward in provincial tournaments across Saskatchewan.
This past weekend there were 13 championships taking place, with Unity hosting the 13U AA Tier 1 provincial tournament. Two local teams, the Unity Cardinals and Macklin Lakers, both made it to Sunday’s showdown where the semi-finals and finals took place.
The two west central teams went head in the semi-finals and although it was a close game, Macklin came out on top, claiming the win and moving on to the finals against the Muenster Red Sox, who reportedly “were the team to beat” all weekend.
“Muenster brought out a great team and you could tell right away they were the team to beat. They beat out Estevan in the semi’s by 11 to 1 and just dominated throughout the weekend,” said Tara Ralston, Event Coordinator.
The Muenster Red Sox continued to dominate through the final game of the championship, taking the victory over the Macklin Lakers by a devastating score of 21 to 2.
Ralston said it was a great weekend of ball and one that wouldn’t have been possible without the help of all the volunteers within the community.
Rosetown, Eston and Kindersley also had teams entered in the 13U AA provincials. The Rosetown Angels competed in the Tier 3 division, while the Eston Ramblers and Kindersley Royals both played in Tier 5.
Jamie Kleppe, Coach for the Eston Ramblers, said it was a great weekend of ball, but Tier 5, in similar fashion to Tier 1, had teams that stood out among the rest. The Carnduff Astros and Moose Mountain Marlins were the “stand-out” teams and the Kindersley Royals had to go through both of them to make it to the semi-finals. The round-robin games did not go in Kindersley’s favour and they were put out of the tournament.
The Eston Ramblers also fell just shy of the semi-finals. Kleppe stated due three teams having a 2-1 win-loss record for the tournament, the Ramblers had to play the Moosomin Rangers once again for a place in the semi’s.
“We just beat them in the last game of the round-robin so we were feeling good, but it just didn’t work out and we lost to them in the morning for a spot in Sunday’s games, so we were just shy of the semi’s”, said Kleppe.
As many expected, it was Carnduff and Moose Mountain in the finals for the Tier 5 division, with Moose Mountain edging out Carnduff and taking the championship.
In 18U AA action over the weekend, the west central region had three teams competing.
In Tier 3, the Macklin Lakers showed their skill and talent adding checkmarks to their win column all throughout the round-robin to land themselves a spot in the final game against the Sask Five Giants. The Lakers despite their best efforts were not able to claim the victory, with the Giants taking the win by one run with a final score of 9 to 8.
In Tier 5, the Rosetown Angels travelled to Moosomin and competed against seven other teams. The Angels were unstoppable all the way until the end and claimed the provincial championship after beating the Saskatoon Bad News A's with a final score of 11 to 1.
The Kindersley Royals were also in action, they travelled to Regina where they fared well in the round-robin portion of the tournament, securing a spot in the semi-finals.
“We did good, we moved into Tier 4 up from Tier 5 so there was a lot of good players that we were up against and everyone played good ball and it just didn’t work out for us in the semi-finals,” said Blain Hilbig, Coach for the Kindersley Royals.
The Royals lost in the semi-final round to the Saskatoon Blue Jay Slow Trains. Hilbig, who has been coaching for the better part of the decade, said this was a similar to last year’s finals when the Royals lost out in the finals in Tier 1.
This year in the 18U AA Tier 1 provincials, the Unity Cardinals came out swinging and didn’t stop until they claimed the championship on Sunday. The team pushed through the round-robin games and semi-finals to be matched up with the Saskatoon Blue Jays in the finals.
“It was a beautiful thing to watch,” said Cardinals Coach, Dan Feser, “everything they did, everything they were trying to do just came together and it was a great game”.
The Cardinals beat out the Blue Jays with a final score of 9 to 5 to become this year’s champions.
Feser said his team was loaded with talent, including seven seniors who will be graduating from the program, with eight 2nd and 1st year players who will now set the tone and act as the core for the new group of players coming in next year.
Overall it was a busy but exciting weekend for Saskatchewan baseball, with a few more provincial tournaments to go before the season wraps up for another year.
Tue, May 14, 7:00 PM
