The regular season is now over for the area's Mosquito-level baseball league, as the year-end tournament took place at Millview Park in Boyle June 16.
Eleven teams took part in the tournament, including teams from Boyle, Athabasca, Slave Lake, Barrhead, Busby, Clyde, Westlock, and Waskatenau.
Jenny Veremy, the president of the Boyle Minor Ball Association, said the tournament was awesome.
"It was great to see everyone come out and play ball at the tournament," Veremy said. "Every participant really enjoyed themselves and had fun."
Veremy added ten of the teams played three games before the top four made the playoffs, but because of the odd number of teams, one only got to play two games.
"As the hosts of the tournament, we felt it would not be fair to ask one of the other teams to be the odd one out, so we volunteered to be the one ourselves," she said. "And in the end, it did cost the Boyle Bandits a playoff spot, but the kids had fun, and it was a good way to wrap up the season."
During their two games, Veremy said the Bandits went up against Waskateneau first, where they fell 6-2, and then just clobbered the Athabasca Trappers Team One by a 9-2 score.
"This who tournament would not have been successful without all the parents who helped put it on, so a big thanks goes out to them," Veremy said. "Also, I would like to thank all the teams, who displayed a great attitude, and good sportsmanship, all around, as well as the Village of Boyle and to all our sponsors."
She added other thank-yous went to the umpires.
"They did an amazing job keeping our tournament running smoothly," Veremy said. "They include Ryan and Bo Maier, Mike Piontek, Reilly McNamara, as well as Shawn and Mason Tomchyshyn. As well, I would like to thank our concession ladies Terra Maloney, Corrine Gordey and Amy Boutette, for keeping all the hungry players and spectators fed, and also I'd like to thank Dallas Boje, who provided his DJ services for the tournament."
Athabasca Trappers Team Two makes playoffs; Team One falls short
The Athabasca Minor Ball Association sent two teams over to Boyle for the year-end tournament, with the Trappers Team Two making to the playoffs.
"It was a long, hot day, but the boys played really well," Team Two head coach Erin Dosenberg said. "At the start of our 2018 season, the team was just bad news bears, but they pulled together, got into the year-end playoffs, and really did well. I'm really proud of them."
In their first game of the tournament, they played Clyde up to a 3-all draw.
"Both teams played really well during this game," Dosenberg said. "It was even throughout the game, but we managed to sqeak in with a tie in the end."
Game two did not go as well as they had hoped, as they fell to Waskatenau 12-8.
"We lost, but the point spread was good for us," she said. "It worked in our favour in getting us into the playoffs, when we nudged out Athabasca Team One with a four-point spread, while they only had a three-point spread."
In fact, Game Three was against Athabasca Team One, and Team Two got it 7-4.
"This game was pretty well-matched between both the teams," Team One assistant coach Denny Sawchuk said. "We left bases loaded in the last half of the game's final inning before our third out."
In their first two games, Team One edged out Clyde 9-7, while they fell 9-2 to Boyle.
"Against Clyde, the team played really well," Sawchuk said. "We were tied at 7-all going into the last inning, but we ended up scoring two, and did not allow our opponents to score any."
During the tournament, the tournament was separated into two pools, with the winners of Pools A and B playing for gold, and the runners-up in each pool playing for bronze.
"We finished second in pool B," Dosenberg said. "So as a result, we played for bronze against Busby. We were up against a couple of great pitchers from that team, and unfortunately, we came up short. But we still finished fourth out of 11 teams, so all in all, we did really well."
The final score was 13-2 for Busby, securing them the bronze medal.
The gold medal game was played between Slave Lake and Waskatenau, with Slave Lake securing the win by a score of 8-1, forcing Waskatenau to settle for silver.
League play may now be over, but according to Dosenberg, provincials are coming up next.
"Players from both Teams One and Two combined for this level," she said. "Under head coach Jordan Walega, the teams have already had a few practices together, and they are set to play three tournaments in July."
Dosenberg said the first two will determine placement in the finals, while the third tournament will be the finals themselves.
"The players really had fun playing together," she said. "Whether they played against each other for league play, or along side each other for provincial level practice, they always have fun."
