Unity hosting North Battleford in provincial baseball series this weekend

The Unity Jr Cardinals are hosting the 22U AAA provincial championships this weekend.

Thanks to a team dropping out late, both Unity and their opponents out of North Battleford will be headed to Westerns, though the two teams will still take part in a best of three series over the weekend to crown a provincial champion.

The first game is set for tomorrow at 12:00 pm, followed by the second game at 3:30, and then if necessary the third and final game would go on Sunday afternoon beginning at 1:00 pm.

Jr. Cardinals coach Dan Feser gave a bit of a preview for the weekend, as his team actually just lost out to some of the faces they will see this weekend in the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League playoffs.

"We'll see a lot of the same guys. Battleford's got a real good team for provincials so it'll be a fun series for sure. We are both playing well so it will be good," said Feser, moving onto the makeup of the team out of North Battleford, "They had four guys in their starting lineup that will be on that team. Then they have other guys scattered from around the league, Saskatoon, Muenster, PA type of thing, they have a Macklin kid. They got a good team."

Again each of the teams from this weekend will be headed to Westerns in Manitoba regardless, though Feser still expects his team to get up for the games. They are bringing in some extra weapons of their own as Tylin Hilbig and his brother Ethan are said to be joining Unity for their provincial run.

"I guess it's still for bragging rights which is big."

The Cardinals opened their NSRBL playoff series against North Battleford with a 13-9 win, but only scored 3 runs total in the following two games of the series to see their season come to and end. A crooked 12-2 final in the recent Game 3 between the two teams led to some gamesmanship coming from Feser ahead of the weekend tilt.

"We were behind so I didn't want to show them anyone they will see this weekend. It will be a good series, the boys are playing well and we gave them all they could handle and we ended up in a mercy, but it was a dogfight and they weren't taking anything for granted."

Feser gave his final sales pitch for the weekend, saying "the ball's going to be maybe the best ball people have seen all year. Beer gardens open at 11, with the first pitch at 12."

They will look to carry off the success seen a few weeks back when they hosted the same team out of Battleford along with a squad out of Calgary for a set of games. Expect West Central Online to follow up on the Unity Jr. Cardinals performance this weekend.