The Prince Albert U13 Astros proved they are the best in the west.
The Astros defeated the Manitoba provincial champion Cross Lake Red Sox 11-4 in the final in Brandon, Manitoba on Sunday afternoon.
“I’m very proud of the effort they put in.” head coach Brad Casavant said. “Our pitching was good, defense was good and we saw some pitching that probably some guys that were throwing harder than we’re used to.”
The win had extra special meaning for the Astros this year. Prince Albert had qualified for the Western Canadian Championships a year ago, but the tournament was cancelled due to a lack of participation.
“We were super disappointed last year that we were able to attend with the team we had, so when we finally heard this year that it was happening, we were really excited.” Casavant explained. “You only get so many opportunities to attend championships like that. The majority of our team moves up to U15 next year and it starts to become Canadians. It really for a lot of our places was their last chance to go to a Western Canadian Championship, so I think that made it even more special.”
The U13 Astros had punched their ticket to Brandon thanks to a provincial win in Prince Albert last month. Facing some of the best competition from across western Canada, the Astros bought into the mindset from the coaching staff of playing the game the right way and taking team success over individual glory.
“I’m so happy for the boys and so proud of how they put the team.” Casavant said. “We talked about it at the beginning of the weekend that it was all about the team. All 13 of them had a team first mentality.”
U15 Aces made most of Westerns experience.
The U15 Prince Albert Aces were also in action over the weekend as they traveled to the Battlefords for Westerns.
THe Aces finished the weekend with a 1-4 record. Prince Albert lost in their first game 5-2 to the Okanagan Elite before knocking off the host Battleford Bandits 8-1 in their second game.
Prince Albert would lose a pair of close games against the Interlake Phillies and Calgary Adrenaline. The Aces were then knocked off 3-0 by the Central Energy in their final game of the tournament.
Aces head coach Curtis Bradbury says the experience was very positive for Prince Albert, despite the record they posted.
“It was good, it wasn’t the end result that we wanted, but our goal at the start of the year was to get to a Canadians or Westerns and our goal was successful. As far as the tournament went, I felt we were leading or very close in each and every game. Unfortunately the bats weren’t going like they were at provincials, so we didn’t get the wins that we wanted, but it was a good experience for the girls.”
With the majority of their games being competitive, Bradbury says the Aces didn’t get the bounces they needed.
“To play with the top competition in Western Canada, we were right there. We didn’t get the breaks that we got at provincials and that\s softball.”
sports@paherald.sk.ca
