It’s been a long time away on the road, but the trip was worth it for two Prince Albert softball players who returned home with a pair of bronze medals.
Prince Albert’s Ryan Bicknell and Troy Preymack have spent most of the month of August in Ontario competing in the U23 Men’s Softball Nationals in Carp, Ontario and the 2022 Canada Summer Games in Niagara, Ontario.
Bicknell says it was an honor to compete in two national tournaments.
“Both tournaments were fun and enjoyable, it was a lot of time spent there. It was worth going to and I’d definitely do both again if the opportunity happened again.”
Bicknell played all over the outfield for Team Saskatchewan in both tournaments, making appearances in all three outfield positions. He says he was hoping for more then a bronze in the Canada Summer games after taking home the third-place hardware in the U23 Nationals.
“We’re glad to get a medal, but obviously we wanted a gold. Especially after nationals two weeks prior, getting a bronze medal there too, so that kind of hurt a little bit. But at the end of the day, I’m grateful to get a medal and have that opportunity.”
For Preymack, he says he enjoyed the opportunity to represent Saskatchewan, but it meant even more to him to be able to able to have a friend from his hometown to share the experience with.
“Being able to train all the time and practice together in our hometown and then actually get to go represent Prince Albert, even though we are not playing for a PA team, but we are playing for Saskatchewan. Just being able to have the opportunity to go with a friend, it helps to have each other’s back the whole way and pick each other up when we need. It’s great to have a teammate like that.”
Preymack and Bicknell both play for the Delisle Fort Protection Pride.
Team Saskatchewan entered the Canada Summer Games softball otournament knockout stage in fourth place with a 5-3 record. A 5-4 victory over Newfoundland in the third place versus fourth place game set up a showdown against Team Ontario, where the winner would head to the gold medal game and the loser would get the bronze medal.
Saskatchewan took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Ethan Sommerfeld walked, advanced to second on a sac fly, then scored on Bicknell’s RBI single. However, the lead was short-lived. Ontario responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning to go up 2-1, then scored two more in the fourth to lead 4-1.
Saskatchewan got one run back in the sixth thanks to Kobey Clarke’s RBI triple, but Ontario scored again in the bottom half of the inning to make it 5-2.
Ontario advanced to the gold medal game for a rematch with Nova Scotia—a team they’d already lost to twice in the tournament. Nova Scotia jumped out to a 1-0 lead, but Ontario rallied for six straight runs to win 6-3.