North Battleford was the place to be for baseball action on the weekend as the provincial Mosquito AA title was decided.
Five teams were in action: the defending champion Lloydminster Hazco Twins, the Yorkton Richardson Cardinals, the Swift Current Indians, the Weyburn Encana Oilers and the host North Battleford Beavers coached by Troy Sack and Bruce Friesen.
The games took place at Diamond No. 1 north of the Civic Centre between July 16 and 18, with the weather co-operating for all the games that took place.
Friday action saw Lloydminster beat Weyburn in the first game 13 to 11, and then Swift Current got by North Battleford 9 to 8 in the second game.
Saturday action saw five games. Things began bright and early at 8:00 am with Weyburn beating Yorkton 7 to 4. North Battleford then dropped to 0-2 with an 11-4 defeat to Lloydminster. Swift Current then bombed Yorkton 17 to 4, and then North Battleford took down Weyburn for their first win of the tournament, 10 to 4. The final game of the day saw Lloydminster beat Swift Current 14 to 12.
On Sunday, North Battleford Beavers needed a win just to stay in contention and have a shot at making it to the championship game, and they took a 10-1 lead against Yorkton before the Cardinals put on a late rally. The final score was 11-6 for the Beavers, which meant that North Battleford needed Weyburn to beat Swift Current to force a three-way tie to have a chance to continue on. Swift Current ended the Beavers' hopes by beating the Oilers 14 to 8.
Round-robin play then wrapped up with a meaningless 19 to 12 win by Yorkton over Lloydminster. Lloydminster finished the round robin with a 3-1 record, as did Swift Current. North Battleford finished third at 2-2, while Weyburn and Yorkton both finished 1-3.
In the final on Sunday afternoon Swift Current came back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game at 3-3, but a base hit in the bottom of the fourth inning was all the Twins needed to claim the provincial AA Mosquito title for a third straight time in front of their excited supporters who came all the way from Lloydminster to cheer their team on.
The winning team received plaques as well as bragging rights as provincial champions for another year. Members of the winning Lloyd team were: coaches Charlie Schille, Dalla Morrell, Jim Crossman, and players Drayce Robertson, Chase Anderson, Dylan Eistetter, Christian Crossman, Eric Noble, Jayden Fraser, Mathew Vieira, Tate Morrell, Jaron Acker, Owen Schille, Trevor Carr and Dalton Spence.
The players on the host North Battleford Beavers team were Zac Abrahamson, Tyler Benoit, Paul Cubbon, Jaydon Daniels, Braden Friesen, Kegan Goba, Kolby Heidt, Cody Kalyn, Louis Lacoursiere, Jake Lane, Colten Poitras and Rett Taggart. Congratulations to all who participated.
