A successful summer for baseball in Westlock has wrapped with the senior Red Lions defeating the St. Albert Cardinals to win the Alberta West Central Baseball Association crown.
The Red Lions won the best-of-three series in two games — a 4-0 win at Keller Field on Aug. 27 and a 4-3 win Aug. 30 in St. Albert.
Speaking on Friday after the win, team manager Keith Szautner said it was a perfect way to end the season. “It was an excellent win,” he said. “It felt really good. It was a really tight game the whole way. It was an excellent game under the lights in St. Albert.”
It took the Red Lions a bit of time to get going Thursday evening. They fell behind early, trailing 2-0 after two innings and down 3-1 after three.
In the fifth inning, the team put another run on the board, followed by the tying run in the sixth. That set the stage for the seventh inning.
“We got the fourth run in the top of the seventh and we held them in the bottom to win it,” Szautner said.
Overall, it took every member of the team putting in a lot of hard and clutch work for the Red Lions to come out on top.
“Probably every guy on the roster had their moment in the game that they did something to help us come back and make that win,” he said.
Although Thursday’s win was memorable for being the one that earned them the title, the Red Lions would not have been in that position without Monday’s home win.
While Thursday’s win was full of small ball, Monday’s had a bit more flair to it.
Already leading 2-0, the Red Lions benefited from a Dean Fagnan two-run homer in the bottom of the third to put them up 4-0.
That homer may have been a blow to the Cardinals’ hopes by itself, but when combined with pitcher Carmen Brown’s no-hitter, it was clear the Cardinals were not going to come away with the win.
With the championship win, the Red Lions finished the season with a combined regular season and playoff record of 18-3, comprising a 14-3 regular season and a perfect 4-0 playoff run.
Ending the season as the league’s top team is something Szautner said he knew was possible, even though to do it meant getting past the best teams in Spruce Grove, Fort Saskatchewan and St. Albert, all of which the Red Lions played three times during the season.
“I knew every one of those games was going to be a tough game,” he said. “They’re all good teams.”
In the end, the Red Lions had the right mix of players to get the job done and win the championship.
“Our guys did a nice job to make sure we came out on top most of the time,” Szautner said.
