Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
Things have become very interesting, and even a bit nerve-wracking, for Prince Albert’s two entries in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League’s 18U AA Division.
With one week left on the regular schedule the Royals and Padres are poised to qualify for the Tier 1 provincials, but with both teams struggling last week their positioning in the standings is precarious.
The Royals took some of the pressure off themselves with a resounding 22-6 triumph over the East Central Red Sox on Monday at Andy Zwack Field, but they still need at least one win in their final four games to secure a top-eight finish to get into the Tier 1 playdowns.
The Padres, meanwhile, dropped five of six games played last week to slip to .500 with a 12-12-1 record and with just three games remaining they quite possibly will require victories in all three to remain in the top eight. What makes that difficult, and even somewhat awkward, is their final two games are against the Royals in a rescheduled doubleheader set for Saturday at Andy Zwack Field.
The Royals wasted little time on Monday to improve to 14-9-1 on the season. Coming off a disheartening 8-1 setback to the North Battleford Beavers in their lone outing last week, the Royals scored 12 times in the second inning and added eight more in the fourth to cruise to the win over the Red Sox.
Owen Tolley-Procyk and Declan Lavallee each knocked in four runs for the Royals while Kole McGregor led the way by scoring four times. Declan Bothwick, Jaxson Robertson and Alex Moose crossed the plate three times each with McGregor and Lavallee combining on a four-hitter on the mound to register the win.
The Royals, who head to Martensville on Wednesday for a doubleheader against the SaskFive Giants before returning home to complete the season against the Padres on Saturday, are destined to finish in fifth place, but they still need that all-important one more victory to ensure that none of the teams still in the hunt behind them can surpass them – and that includes the Padres.
For the first-year Padres, last week was crippling in their pursuit of a top-eight finish. After being swept 5-4 and 19-4 by the Giants on Wednesday the Padres went to Regina on the weekend where they fell 3-2 and 12-6 to the Wolfpack on Saturday and 10-0 to the Blue Jays in the opening game of a doubleheader against one of the league’s best on Sunday. To their credit, the Padres salvaged the week somewhat with a gutsy 7-6 win in the nightcap against the Blue Jays to keep their hopes alive of qualifying for the Tier 1 tournament.
Markus Exner and Jett Miller scored two runs each to lead the Padres in the win against the Blue Jays, but the Padres, who are tied with the Regina Athletics for the eighth and final berth in the top tier, need to win in Marysburg on Tuesday against the East Central Red Sox to continue their push and set the stage for the first-ever meeting between the two Prince Albert entries on Saturday.
The Tier 1 provincials, featuring the top eight teams, will be held in Regina on July 24-26 while the seven remaining teams will head to Moose Jaw the same weekend for the Tier 2 tournament.
The regular season for the 15U Royals is in the books with Prince Albert claiming sixth place with a 7-13-0 record. After splitting a doubleheader with the Watrous Lakers, where the Royals won the opener 11-1 before losing 14-12 in the nightcap to conclude the regular schedule, the team competed in a year-end tournament on the weekend, but they were winless in four starts.
The Royals fell 11-1 to the Northern Jays to open the event on Friday then lost 5-4 to the SaskFive Giants and 15-7 to the East Central Dodgers on Saturday. Their final game was an 11-2 setback to the SaskWest Sasquatch on Sunday.
The Royals, however, will be looking for redemption this weekend when they open the Tier 1 15U provincials with a game against the Lumsden Cubs in Martensville.
Finally, the 13U Royals continued to build some momentum leading up to that age class’s Tier 1 provincial tournament set to be held in Humboldt on July 24-26.
With no league to compete in the Royals are relying solely on tournament and exhibition games and this past weekend they entertained the Humboldt Dodgers and Saskatoon Avalanche A’s at the Kinsmen Baseball Complex.
In the opening game against Humboldt the Royals were led by a strong pitching performance by Kody Kulczycki to double the Dodgers 16-8 and in the 14-5 victory over the Avalanche A’s it was Boston Byers turning in a solid effort behind the plate along with Beckett Grimard getting some timely hits.
“The boys showed incredible poise and maturity on the field,” noted Royals’ coach Michael Lypchuk. “The boys get better with every game we play and they are a lot of fun to watch.”
The Royals will resume preparations for the upcoming provincial championship this weekend when they head to Nipawin on Saturday for a pair of games and then on Sunday and Monday they will have a home-and-home series against a team from Saskatoon.
The Royals are hitting their stride at the right time as not only do they have the provincial event in Humboldt in two weeks they are also the host team for the Western Canadian 13U AA championship at the Kinsmen Baseball Complex. Prince Albert is also the site for the 15U AA and 18U AA Western Canadian championships with the former also being played at the Kinsmen Baseball Complex in Crescent Acres while the latter will be held at the Andy Zwack Field on Marquis Road. All three Western Canadian championships will be played Aug. 14-16.
Before all that happens, however, the first round of provincials are set for this weekend with a Royals team heading to North Battleford for the 11U AA Tier 1 championship with their first game going Friday at 11 a.m. against the Quad Town Steelers. They will then get right back at it with a 2 p.m. game against the Humboldt Dodgers.
Another Royals squad will be the host team this weekend for the 11U Tier 6 provincial tournament to be played at Mair Park. There will be eight teams divided into two pools of four vying for the title.
One other provincial title will be played for in Prince Albert when the 13U Tier 4 title is up for grabs July 24-26 at the Kinsmen Baseball Complex. Eight teams are entered to compete in that event with a schedule of games yet to be released.
