Westlock’s 30-plus Red Lions wrapped up their season after playing in two weekend tournaments earlier this month.
Their first tournament was the West Central Alberta Baseball Association wrap-up tournament Aug. 6-7 in St. Albert, where they ended up falling in the semi-final against the league’s second-place team from Fort Saskatchewan.
As the league’s third-place team entering the tournament, the Red Lions took on the sixth-place Edmonton Blues, and walked away with a 5-2 win, said manager Rick Sereda.
Flying high after beating the Blues, they took to the field against Fort Saskatchewan. Unfortunately, the Red Lions’ dreams of bringing home the title were dashed in a 9-0 defeat.
“We didn’t hit the ball very well,” Sereda said. “They threw a very good pitcher against us and we struggled to generate runs while they hit the ball well themselves.”
After the league tournament, the old Red Lions joined forces with some of their younger brethren and headed down to St. Albert again on Aug. 13-14 for an invitational tournament.
In their first game, the Red Lions fell to a team from Cadogan, Alta., 4-2 in a game Sereda called “well played on both sides.”
They came back from that loss by defeating the Edmonton Heat 7-5, and giving them a chance to qualify for the championship game if they won their final game of the round robin against a Spruce Grove team.
However, a shot at the championship was not in the cards as the Red Lions tied their opponents 2-2 in a game they almost won.
Sereda said the game ended with a Red Lion thrown out at the plate after trying to score from second base on a single.
“Unfortunately we didn’t score that run, but it was still a pretty exciting finish to the game,” he said.
With those two defeats in tournament play, the Red Lions’ season is over, but by no means does Sereda consider those weekends to be failures.
“Even though we didn’t make a final in either tournament, I consider both weekends successes,” he said.
Looking to the 2012 season, he said he feels the team will be solid and able to compete well. However, any success the team has will come without Sereda at the helm, as he’ll be spending the year on exchange in Australia, and Keith Szautner will take over the reins.
