Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
For pretty much the entire weekend the Prince Albert Astros had their way with opposing teams, but there was a brief moment in the championship game of the Softball Saskatchewan U15 boy’s provincial event played at Max Power Ball Park in Prime Ministers’ Park on Sunday when they had a bit of a scare.
“After that third inning I pulled the guys aside and said that was probably the worst inning we’ve played all year,” said Astros’ coach Brad Casavant in explaining how he got his club to rebound from giving up four runs and trail by one to go on to claim the gold medal with a convincing 13-6 decision over the Parkland Wildcats.
“I told the guys to take a deep breath; we’re still in it,” added Casavant.
His squad responded by scoring four in the bottom of the fourth and then putting the game out of reach with three more in the fifth.
“I thought in the last half of the game last night our bats came alive and we continued to hit it well today,” noted Casavant referring to Saturday’s 8-1 decision over the Wildcats that nailed down top spot in the round-robin and earned the Astros a bye to the gold-medal game. “We had good pitching all weekend and good defence when needed. It really was a team effort.”
Prince Albert jumped out to a 4-1 advantage after two innings of the championship final before three errors allowed the Wildcats to score four in their half of the third to take a brief lead. After that it was all Astros, however, and they will now be the province’s No. 1 seed at the Western Canadian championships in Surrey, B.C., in early August. The Wildcats also qualify for the Western Canadian event as Saskatchewan is allowed to send two teams.
“I’m extremely proud,” said Casavant, who has coached the core of the team for several years with that group having now won five provincial banners. “They’re such a good group of kids. I’m proud to be their coach.”
Just three teams were competing in the boy’s event with Prince Albert going undefeated in round-robin play after beating the Rosebud Royals from Wadena 15-3 and the Wildcats 8-1. Parkland, who had split their round-robin schedule by beating the Rosebuds 12-1 in addition to the setback to Prince Albert, needed a 14-10 decision over the Royals in semi-final play to get another shot at the Astros in the gold-medal game.
The U15 girl’s title was also contested in Prince Albert on the weekend with the Saskatoon Select Surge capturing the gold medal when they outscored the East Central Wolverines 11-4 in the championship final.
The victory was a bit of payback for the Surge as the Wolverines had edged the Saskatoon squad 11-10 in preliminary round-robin play with that loss being the only blemish on the Surge’s record for the weekend.
Saskatoon Select Impact claimed the bronze medal when they got past the White Butte Storm 13-3 and the Moose Jaw Ice were fifth-place finishers after winning a battle with the Melfort Spirit for that position.
The Surge, Wolverines and Impact all qualify for the national U15 girl’s championship to be held in Fredericton, N.B., at the end of the month while Moose Jaw and White Butte are slated to be Saskatchewan’s representatives at the Western Canadian championship that will be played in Winkler, Man., in mid August.
Prince Albert’s entry in the event, the Aces, were 1-3 in preliminary round-robin action losing 14-2 to the Surge, 8-4 to the Regina Royals Reign and 15-4 to the Wolverines. The lone victory was a 17-1 decision over the Yorkton Crush.
Three other local teams were in provincial playdowns on the weekend, but all returned home empty handed.
In U17 action in Saskatoon, the Aces lost all four games they played and failed to advance to the playoff round. The same result was turned in by the U11A Aces, also in Saskatoon, while the U11B Aces topped their pool with three straight wins in Warman only to be eliminated in quarter-final play when they were outscored 7-1 by the Saskatoon Phantoms.
Another slate of provincial tournaments are scheduled for this coming weekend with Prince Albert hosting both the U20 men’s and U17 boy’s events while the U13A Aces will be in Regina and the U13B Aces are in Saskatoon. The U15B Aces are also in Saskatoon.
