The Westlock Wild minor baseball season has wrapped up with a set of medals in provincials.
The U13 softball girls won bronze and the AA U13 boys came home with silver from Lacombe over the July 25-27 weekend.
The Westlock Minor Ball Association has seen tremendous growth in the past few years from around 130 players to over 270 this season.
“The growth is awesome for the future. I think what I want as a board member and as a president is to see our teams being able to participate in more competitive play,” said Chris Brand, president of the Westlock Minor Ball Association.
The U13 boys in provincials defeated the Slave Lake Heat and Lacombe Dodgers in extra innings to advance to the gold medal game against the Parkland Twins. In the all-important game against the Heat, the Wild won by one run during a final play where the Heat mistakenly thought they had won the game.
“I think they were definitely proud to make the finals. There were some struggles at the start against some pretty strong teams and a little bit of a steep learning curve but in the end, I think the kids did really well just to get to where they got to,” said Cody Miller, one of the coaches of the team. “The one thing with U13 boys is the silver medal is always a loss for them and it can be pretty sad at that moment, but I think in the end, they'll be pretty proud of their achievement if they look back on it.”
The U13 softball girls capped off an impressive season with bronze where they only lost one game all season prior to provincials against the Beaumon Blitz. The girls made a solid start winning their first two games on July 18 but the rest of the tournament was delayed due to heavy rainfall. The Wild won against the Irma Tigers but lost to Foothills and then 8-6 to the Innisfail Hawks in the rescheduled tournament the next weekend but still secured bronze.
“We're a small association and a small town playing against some pretty big communities that have tryouts and cuts so it was a pretty huge accomplishment for these girls to work hard and to compete to get there,” said Donelle Young, one of the coaches of the team. “I’m just super proud of the girls and thankful that the parents were able to make it work because of the rescheduling to another weekend and summer holidays which affected some of the plans but their enthusiasm and participation was very good.”
Increased growth for the Wild has created some challenges with baseball diamonds in town having decreased availability due to the influx of teams. There has also been significant growth in the U7-U9 program with more than 80 players in that program alone.
This is the first year the association has had three softball teams go to provincials and first time in several years they’ve run a AA program.
The program is looking to expand further by possibly introducing another U11 AA team and U18 teams in the near future.
