The Westlock Red Lions will face the Camrose for the North Central Alberta Baseball League championship.
The Red Lions pulled off an improbable upset of the NCABL regular-season champs, the Edmonton Blackhawks, and punched their ticket to the league final with a 9-7 win in the third and deciding game of the semifinal series played Saturday and Sunday in Westlock.
On Saturday the Lions captured Game 1 1-0, before dropping Game 2 5-0 Saturday night to force a deciding Game 3 on Sunday morning.
Manager Adam Sawatzky couldn’t have been happier with his team’s ability to bounce back after a poorly played second game.
“It kind of showed that we didn’t have a decent effort in the second game. But everybody really showed up [Sunday] and a lot of guys contributed,” Sawatzky said.
“Curtis Burlet threw phenomenally well for us, he had a great start. It was a really good game.”
In Game 3 the Lions, who played as the visiting team, jumped out to an early 2-0 lead before the Blackhawks responded with a three-run third to take a 3-2 lead.
The Lions regained the lead in the fourth, cashing in three runs with the bases loaded to take a 5-3 lead. In the same inning Stuart Schroeder launched a home run over the left field wall to give the Lions a commanding 9-3 advantage.
But the Blackhawks made things interesting and smacked a home run of their own in the sixth. But it was far too little, far too late and the Lions staved off the comeback attempt to earn a spot in the finals.
After dropping the early lead Sunday, Sawatzky said his team never panicked.
“We came in the dugout and talked about it. I told everybody this was our game and they weren’t going to take it from us,” he said. “The guys responded and we came out and put up seven runs and we held onto it from there.”
Sawatzky also extended kudos to his defence that recorded some timely outs.
“It wasn’t on all the time, but when we needed it, it was there,” he said.
The Lions now gear up to play Camrose Axemen, who downed the Stony Plain Mets two-straight in the other league semifinal.
As of Sunday night the NCABL website reported that the Axemen don’t have a home field to use for final so the league will announce the location of the final early this week.
