ST. PAUL – Last week, three St. Paul Minor Ball baseball teams headed out of town to compete at provincial ‘A’ championships.
After a three-day competition from July 19 to 21, two teams brought home the gold medal.
15U
The St. Paul Storm provincial 'A' 15U baseball team headed to Fox Creek to compete in the Tier 1 level.
During the round robin portion of the tournament, the team played against Mannville and Smoky Lake.
Angela Noel, off-field manager, says the team lost to Mannville in a prior game, but managed to beat Manville 17-6 during the provincial tournament.
Then, the St. Paul team played Smoky Lake. But the Storm “struggled on their bats,” and lost, says Noel, placing the team second in their pool.
The team reached the semi-finals and played against the first seed of Pool B, which was the host team. Despite not being the favourite to win, “The kids played an amazing game,” recalls Noel.
St. Paul won 22-5 against Fox Creek.
“We had some great, great, great pitching from Hunter Cardinal and all the boys were able to bat, get on base, and just had a lot of good movement,” she explains.
In the final game, St. Paul faced Round Hill - a team they lost to by one point during a game two weekends before the provincial championship.
During the final game, The Storm would beat the opposing team 15-7, claiming the provincial ‘A’ 15U Tier I championship.
Norm Noel, head coach for the team, says it was a very hot weekend with “Almost zero breeze.” But the team played through it all and never lost an inning during the semi-final and final games.
“We would tie or win every inning,” he recalls. “They gave it all their all... every inning.”
13U
Meanwhile, St. Paul’s provincial ‘A’ 13U baseball team travelled to Hinton to compete at the Tier 3 provincial championships.
The team had a dominating and convincing performance throughout the weekend, going undefeated.
Chad Kully, head coach for the team and St. Paul Minor Ball’s technical director, said the team went 2-0 during round robin play, before defeating the Delburne Dodgers in the semi-finals.
In the finals, the Storm defeated the St. Albert Cardinals 15-5 to claim the gold medal.
“It was just great... they played the best ball of the season,” says Kully, recalling how hard the players worked throughout the season.
“We had a bit of struggles earlier in the season... but they said, ‘We’ll work through it,’ and battled hard on the final weekend... Their hard work paid off in the end.”
11U
St. Paul’s 11U team headed to Leduc to compete at the 11U Tier 1 championship. Heading into provincials, the team had a 5-1 record.
During the round robin portion of the provincial tournament, the team faced two dominating teams who did not lose a single game during the playdowns held earlier in the season.
The Storm lost close games against the Delburne Dodgers and the Leduc Giants. Leduc ended up winning the silver medal after a tight 8-7 game against the Edson Prospects.
On Sunday, St. Paul defeated the Beaumont Bosox 10-9 to win the consolation final, placing them fifth overall in the province.
Garth Finlay, head coach, says the St. Paul 11U team won six games and only incurred three losses throughout the season.
“The only losses we had were against undefeated teams,” he says, which speaks for the level of competition in the province at the Tier 1 level.
Finlay says he is happy to see how the young players improved.
“We had each other’s backs,” and the team kept supporting each other all the way through, he says.
From the start of the year to the end of the season, Final expressed his pride in each player.
“They grew a lot as individuals, and as a team. We played better and better.”
He believes that if the players choose to play more ball in the future, they will only get stronger.
Ultimately, the season was a great learning experience and great development for the players, according to Finlay - both in baseball and in life.
All teams also thanked their respective sponsors, families, and all the fans who kept supporting them throughout the baseball season.
