St. Paul Minor Ball wrapped up its season for many local teams this weekend, with the Mosquito B Storm and the Bantam boys and girls Storm taking home league championships.
“At the beginning of the season many people would have maybe discounted our team, but after the first couple games of our season we discovered what the strengths of our players were and we played to that,” said Mosquito B Coach Rob Hurtubise.
Hurtubise added the Mosquito B Storm earned a bye into the quarter-final after finishing second in the regular season, slating the Storm against home team Goodfish Lake for the tournament opener. After making quick work of Goodfish, the Mosquito B Storm took down Cold Lake before defeating Lac La Biche in the championship game.
“It seemed to all come together. The guys executed the skills that they already had and it was wonderful to see the skills that they acquired over the season . . . They rallied together and helped each other out with some good plays, and their bats were definitely working.”
Mosquito co-coach Clay Doré added he was thrilled to see his team play strong fundamental baseball throughout what was a very long day on the diamond, and added that while they may be little players, they’ve got big hearts.
“They all played great fundamental baseball. These guys were covering each other,” said Doré. “We’ve got a heck of a third baseman out there, too, who was coming in on every passed ball, and we got a lot of guys out at the plate.”
St. Paul’s bantam boys team also managed a Lakeland championship victory, after finishing the regular season with a 5-2 record, the bantam Storm closed out the season with a winning performance at the year-end tournament, defeating Lac La Biche 7-5 in the final game.
“We had Christian Hiscock and Tyler Churney on the mound, they did a heck of a job and we had some good defence,” said bantam Storm first baseman Carter Austin. “We played as a team.”
On the girls’ side, the bantam Storm closed out an undefeated season with a Lakeland championship. The bantam girls finished off the regular season with an untouchable 8-0 record, and solidified their spot as league champions.
The boys peewee Storm fell just short of a Lakeland championship title at their tournament in Elizabeth Settlement, finishing second overall. The peewee boys entered the year-end tournament ranked fifth, and managed to defeat higher-seeded teams in Lac La Biche and Cold Lake before falling to the Elk Point Sox in the championship game.
The full season officially wrapped up this week, as the midget Storm took on Cold Lake in the championship game in St. Paul on Monday evening. Results were not available by the Journal’s press deadline. See next week’s issue of the Journal for more coverage and results.
