They hosted and won last year and are hoping for a repeat.
The Muenster Pee Wee Red Sox are in the midst of preparing to host the Pee Wee A2 Provincial baseball tournament July 16-18 and coach Troy Anderson is busy.
"We weren't planning on hosting but the deadline was coming up and no one was listed as host on the Baseball Saskatchewan web site, so we offered to do it again," Anderson explained. "We enjoyed doing it last year."
The tournament will have nine teams this year, instead of the usual eight, Anderson noted. That makes the format a little different from last year. There will be three pools of three and playoffs will use a crossover format to decide who advances to the final, he explained.
This year's teams include Lumsden, Wynyard, Macklin, Porcupine Plain, Middle Lake, Carlyle, Strasbourg, Unity, and Muenster.
"Every team is going to be tough," said Anderson. "They're all strong teams and nobody is driving that far to lose."
Muenster beat the Porcupine Plain team, playing under a different name, in last year's final to claim the Provincial title. Anderson isn't taking anything for granted though, as he believes every game will be a close one.
Muenster has five players returning from last year's Provincial championship team, along with six players who moved up from the Mosquito team, which also won Provincials last year.
"Between games, make-up games and make-up tournaments, we haven't had a lot of chance to practise," Anderson said. "The next two weeks will be devoted to preparing for this tournament."
The team has good pitching depth and good defence, Anderson said. They've also had timely hitting in the past, something he hopes will happen in the tournament.
Besides trying to fit in practice time between rains, Anderson also has to keep an eye on the diamonds.
"Right now, our main diamond is fantastic," he explained. "It takes water very well."
The second diamond still needs a little work as a home run fence needs to be put up.
The tournament starts around 3 p.m. on July 16 and play continues all day Saturday and Sunday.
