It was a successful weekend on the diamond for the Prince Albert Astros.
Prince Albert hosted the Rawlings Grand Slam Boys Softball tournament at Prime Ministers Park and the Astros took home the title in three of the four age divisions.
The U15 Astros took home the title with a 6-3 win over the Laird Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon. U15 Astros head coach Neil Finch says he thought the team did a tremendous job at defending over the weekend.
“I thought that defensively we were really good, so over the weekend, coming to the final hadn’t made any errors. We made a few in the final, but for the most part over six games and that’s 36 innings. To have flawless ball, that was really good.”
Prince Albert led from the start in the final, posting two runs in the first inning, adding a three spot in the third and a single run in the fifth.
Finch says the Astros did an excellent job at being aggressive early in the count.
“Well, one thing we got better at as the weekend went on is just being aggressive batters. We talked about if it’s a strike, you got to be swinging and I thought the boys did a much better job as the weekend went on with that.”
It was the first time that Prince Albert had hosted a boys’ tournament with four teams in an attempt to make an atmosphere similar to the Shaye Amundson Memorial Tournament, which will be hosted in Prince Albert next weekend.
Finch says the diamonds at Prime Ministers Park were busy all weekend long.
“Lots of great feedback around 21 teams being around here and the atmosphere was fantastic. The parking lot was full of vehicles and that’s what you want for boys’ ball, the same as we do with the girls’ ball, so i thought it was really good.”
In the other divisions, The U17 Astros defeated Treaty 4 9-6 in the final. U13 went to Prince Albert with a 9-7 win over Parkland and the U11 Astros lost in the final to Parkland 13-11.
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