It was great weather for baseball this weekend as St. Paul’s bantam boys hosted the Lakeland final tournament. Six teams came to battle it out over two days to see who would claim the title, with St. Paul, Vermilion, Kikino, Frog Lake and Cold Lake represented on the diamonds.
The St. Paul Storm bantam boys had a successful season with only one loss all year against Kikino. They knew they would have to work hard in the round robin to make it to the final.
On Saturday morning, they played Cold Lake 1 and won 10 - 7. In the afternoon, St. Paul faced Kikino, which had a advantage as its first game was forfeited by Frog Lake, giving Kikino the edge with fresh pitchers. St. Paul was ahead 8-1 but in the last inning, Kikino rallied to come back with five runs to make it 8 - 6. It was a nail-biter of a game but St. Paul managed to hold on to win.
On Sunday morning, the boys faced Vermilion and won 14-10, despite an overthrow costing them three runs. They placed first after the round robin with a record of 3-0 to face Kikino once again in the final. It was apparent that both teams saved their pitchers that could throw some heat for the final, as the game was scoreless until the bottom of the third. That’s when St. Paul started to play some some offence, and over the next few innings, widened the lead to 10 – 1. With only one inning left, St. Paul was confident it had a win, but with the inning open against the determined Kikino they knew it wasn’t a guarantee. They threw in another pitcher Dexter Weinmeier to seal the deal, giving Kikino only one run. The final score was 10-2 for St. Paul.
The tournament went well with the great weather. However, it takes a lot to make it happen. The bantam boys thanked Gary Ward and his grounds crew for making the diamonds the nicest in the Lakeland area, Tyson deMoissac for organizing and umpiring all of their games, and St. Paul Cubs for use of its PA system for announcing the games. A big thanks goes to coaches Danny Weinmeier and James Robinson and all the parents for making the year-end a great success.
With the majority of these players moving up to Midgets next year, we are hoping to keep baseball alive in St. Paul, as it has been years since St.Paul has had a Boys Midget team. After the successful season and year-end tournament, it looks very promising it will happen.
