Trappers finish provincials with one win and two losses

The Athabasca Midget AA Trappers capped off their season in Fort Saskatchewan for the mMidget Ttier Tthree provincial tournament.

The club finished the tournament with a one win and two loses.

It was looking to be a tough weekend for the team, having been bumped up from a tTier Ffour division to a tTier Tthree division during the regular season.

The Trappers played their first game against Coronation on July 24. With Coronation being the defending champions and number- one ranked in their pool, it looked to be a tough game. The Ttrappers started off strong with a 4-2 lead, but they couldn't hold onto it, losing 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth inning.

“We didn't have enough pitching to make it through that game, ” said Trappers assistant coach Ron Bay. assistant coach of the Trappers. “We played a really good game with no errors, but we just couldn't close the deeal. ”

The Trappers would later play Drayton Valley, where they did not fareir as well as they had hoped. The Trappers teams were tied at 8-8 late in the game, but with a few Trapper errors and some pitching problems, Drayton Valley would go on to win 14-8.

“That basically eliminated us from provincials, because we had the two loses, ” said Bay.

The boys would, however, finish their season on a high note with a 13-7 win against Barrhead on July, 25. Barrhead had a 6-0 lead early on in the game, but the Trappers answered back with a nine- run inning in the bottom of the fourth, essentially winning them the game.

With the Trappers only having 12 players on their team, Bay said that it was difficult to get the pitching together during the tournament.

“It's always an issue with small teams, ” he said. “You have to decided how to run the pitching, because in theory you can have five games in three days. If you pitch them too much, they couldn't pitch the next day. ”

In theUnder provincial rulesing, a player can only throw 110 a pitches 110 times in one day. If a player were to throw 60 pitches in one game, they could only throw 50 pitches in the next game if they are on the same day.

Although the Trappers didn't come out of the tournament with any medals, the players and staff coaches were very pleased with the way the season and tournament turned out.

“This year we set a goal to win eight (games) and finish the season at .500, then see what happens in provincials, ” Bay said. “Going into provincials, we had 11 wins and 10 losses, so we did better then we projected. ”

Including the provincial tournament wins and losses, the Trappers would end their season with a .500 record. A, achieving their goal they had made in the spring.

“Overall, we were pleased with the players' progress and the way that the season had went. ”