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Midget AA baseball provincials to be held in St. Paul

While a handful of teams have been wrapping up the baseball season, playing in communities across the province in provincials games and tournament, St.
The St. Paul Midget AA Storm will be hosting provincials in St. Paul this weekend. Pictured ia an action shot from a recent game in Edmonton.
The St. Paul Midget AA Storm will be hosting provincials in St. Paul this weekend. Pictured ia an action shot from a recent game in Edmonton.

While a handful of teams have been wrapping up the baseball season, playing in communities across the province in provincials games and tournament, St. Paul is in for its own exciting weekend of baseball as the Midget AA Storm gets ready to host provincials in town.

Head coach Rick Austin found out last week that the community’s bid to host the tournament on July 28-30 was successful. He notes that while some communities shy away from hosting provincial tournaments, he loves seeing these types of events hosted in St. Paul.

“We have a great facility,” says Austin, when speaking of Jaycee Ballpark, He adds, the parents involved have also been eager to help out with the upcoming tournament.

And, he is also confident the Storm will put on a good show for their hometown fans.

Most recently, the team spent the weekend playing in Edmonton, where they split the weekend, winning a couple games, and losing a couple. First, the Storm played Marwayne and lost 14-6. Then, the team beat Red Deer by a score of 8-3, where Kristian Hiscock was “outstanding” and pitched a not hitter in 5 2/3 innings, says Austin.

The team lost to Heisler 11-9, and then took on the Alberta ladies team and won 14-4 after five innings.

Earlier in the month the team went 3-0 during a weekend of play in Grand Prairie, with only nine players on the roster for those three games.

“We’re rocking,” said Austin, of his team’s success this season.

He notes that the team will be back up to its full roster for the provincial tournament in St. Paul, which includes the same core as the team that won their league earlier in the season, with just a few changes in the lineup.

“We’re just improving from there,” says Austin, looking back on regular league play, and ahead to the provincial AA tournament.

The St. Paul Storm peewee boys’ team went to Trochu for Tier 1 provincial championships this past weekend.

The team had a tough first game, losing to Mayerthorpe on Friday by a score of 11-1.

Team manager Deziree Warholik described the Mayerthorpe peewee as “a very strong team.”

On aturday, the Storm played the first placed team in Tier 1, Westlock, and beat them 10-7. St. Paul’s games were scheduled back-to-back on Saturday, which meant the boys played North Peace right after, losing by a score of 18-11 in six innings.

It was a close game, explains Warholik, and in the fifth inning the Storm was only down by a score of 13-11.

The St. Paul team found themselves waiting for results from the next game to see if they would play on Sunday. If Mayerthorpe beat Westlock, St. Paul would be in a three-way tie for second place in the pool. But, Mayerthorpe lost 17-7 against Westlock, leaving St. Paul out of the final rounds.

“We had a great provincial season and can't wait for next year,” said Warholik.

The Mosquito A boys’ team went to Provost for the July 21-23 provincial tournament, but wasn’t able to make it past round robin play.

“Although the boys played very well, they did not advance past round robin play,” said team manager Maryse Culham, after the weekend tournament wrapped up.

The St. Paul team went in seeded eight in an eight-team championship for Tier 1 A Mosquito baseball and beat the top seeded team, Delia, by a score of 16-14 after five and a half innings, explained Culham. But, ultimately, the team lost both other round robin games, in close, hard-fought battles.

The loses would put the Storm in a tie for second place in its pool, but due to a lower run differential, the boys would not advance to the finals.

The U14C girls’ ball provincials took place in Irma from July 14 to 16. St. Paul sent a team to compete in the event, lead by coaches Gerry Jean, Ken Warholik, and Henry Thomson.

The girls would lose the first game by a score of 16-9 against the Calgary SBR Blitz, and then battle in a close second game against the Stettler Storm losing 13-12.

The girls would continue to battle, but lost a third game against the Camrose Crossfire by a score of 15-8. All was not lost though, as the girls took a convincing 21-5 win against the Edmonton SEMA Hurricanes, in their last game of the tournament.


Janice Huser

About the Author: Janice Huser

Janice Huser has been with the St. Paul Journal since 2006. She is a graduate of the SAIT print media journalism program, is originally from St. Paul and has a passion for photography.
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