It was a memorable weekend for the Prince Albert Astros as the U13 and U17 teams took home the provincial championships over the weekend.
The U13 Astros took home the title defeating the Rosebud Royals 18-9 in the final at Kinsmen Field in Prince Albert on Sunday afternoon.
Head coach Brad Casavant says it was meaningful for Prince Albert to get it done in front of the hometown crowd.
“Anytime you win, it’s special, but to do it in front of your friends, family, grandmas and grandpas and moms and dads, it makes it even more special for sure.“
In the U13 age level, teams may score a maximum of five runs per inning. Although, they never reached the limit, Casavant says the fact the Astros were able to string together multiple scoring innings in a row was key for the team.
“The biggest thing is we put up runs every inning, except the first actually, so after that we were able to put up three or four runs every inning. Eventually they just couldn’t catch us because we kept scoring so many runs.”
With the provincial title, the U13 Astros will advance to play at the Western Canadian Championships in Brandon, Manitoba.
Casavant says the Astros are ready for the opportunity to compete against teams from across Western Canada.
“We’re extremely excited about that. Last year we had won provincials and they got canceled because of lack of participation. So the opportunity to go this year is really exciting. And I think the biggest thing for us is we’re just excited to play different teams and some different competition and see how we size up against different provinces.”
In the U17 division, the Astros came away with a 10-3 win over Treaty 4 in the Gold Medal Game at Gordie Howe Sports Complex in Saskatoon.
The Astros will head to Quebec for nationals later this month.
U17 head coach Jordan Ambrose says Prince Albert relied on veteran experience to get through the tournament.
“It’s exciting. We’ve got an older team this year. We went to Ontario a couple years ago, and a lot of the same players that were on that team are on this team. So it was a good experience that year, and it’s good to win our province and go have another shot at it again this year.”
The Astros relied on their offense throughout the weekend. Ambrose says it was the best weekend of production Prince Albert has seen all season.
“We worked a lot this year on just keeping things short and not letting our swings get too big. I think that really paid off when you get into those games where pitchers are throwing hard and they’re spinning the ball. You need to really be short into the ball and the boys bought in with it and we hit the ball the best we’ve hit it all year.”
sports@paherald.sk.ca
