midget and junior provincials in Saskatchewan
June 29, 2009
Saskatoon, SK
An update on Sask provincials
It was an exciting weekend around the softball diamonds June 26-28.City Playoffs were taking place and Saskatoonwas hosting three different Provincial Championships. The first provincialchampion determined was the Mike Oakes Selects, in the Midget A Boys category.Led by a balanced offense and strong pitching, Dave McCullough’s crewwent undefeated, including a convincing 8-1 drubbing of the BradLefebvre’s Selects in the all Saskatoonfinal. These two teams will join the Prince Albert Astros at the MidgetNationals in Prince Albertfrom August 2-9. If this weekend was any indication Saskatoon could have back to back Midget BoysNational Champions. The Junior A Men’s Provincials was an exciting bestof 5 affair between the SaskatoonJr. Diamondbacks and the FSIN Chiefs. The Chiefs seem to thrive on best of fivecompetitions, because just like last year when they were in the Junior Bcategory, they won two very close games on Sunday to win the title. Featuringfour players from last year’s National Junior team, they won games fourand five by the score of 1-0. The weekend saw a huge pitcher’s duelfeaturing last years Junior Team Canadaace, Dutsin Keshane and Diamondbacks import Brady Woods from Stonebridge Manitoba. Woods pitched21 innings appearing in 4 games and gave up only two runs while recording bothDiamondback wins. Keshane gave up three runs in the first game on Saturday butkept the Diamondbacks off the scoreboard in both games on Sunday, earning allthree of the Chiefs victories. Both teams earned the rite to represent Saskatchewan at Junior Men’s Nationals in Owen Sound Ontariofrom August 2-9. In the Midget A Girls category, it was a tough weekend for theSelects program as they failed to qualify a team to go to Nationals for thesecond year in a row. The Cinderella team in that event was the Quill PlainsBlazers. They upset the Ehrenbug Selects in the preliminary portion of the drawand followed that up with a victory over the highly touted Regina Gold in theplayoffs to advance into the final with two lives. In the final it appearedthey had run out of gas as they were soundly beaten by the Gold in the firstgame. They regrouped in game two scoring in the bottom of the seventh to earnthe 6-5 victory and a trip to BramptonAugust 2-9, for the Midget A Girls Canadian Championship.
Thanks
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