The Parkland Expos AAA Midget baseball team is headed to Saskatoon this week in search of a provincial championship.
The team begins action with two games Thursday, the first against the Saskatoon Cubs, with the second opponent still to-be-determined.
“It is a round robin, but there’s some positioning to be determined yet,” said team manager and assistant coach Stefan Bymak.
The tournament will include 10 AAA Midget teams (players aged 16-18).
The Parkland team is made of players from across the Zone 4, most hailing from Yorkton and Melville.
“Midget AAA is the highest level of ball in Saskatchewan for players up to high school,” said Bymak, adding the Parkland team being made up of the top players across Zone 4 is an important aspect of growing the talent level locally and beyond.
“Baseball Saskatchewan has come a long way,” said Bymak, who noted while he, and Expos head coach Tony Black will retire at season’s end, he hopes the program continues, something that would be aided with more support in terms of players from smaller rural communities such as Foam Lake or Langenburg.
The Expos head to the championship with a rather veteran squad.
“Most of the core players will be graduating out of the Midget Division after this summer,” offered Bymak.
The season for the veterans could be extended into August depending on how things go in Saskatoon. The tournament winner will head to the National Tournament representing Saskatchewan, while the second and third place teams go to a Western Canada event upcoming in Edmonton.
The Parkland team hosted the Saskatchewan championship in Melville in 2015, so have some experience to draw on, not that they did that well a year ago.
“We didn’t advance out of the round robin. We had a poor showing last year,” admitted Bymak.
This summer the team has gone 11-19, “which isn’t great, but we sincerely believe we have a good chance,” he said.
There is reason for optimism, much of that coming from the mound where the Expos are led by Tyson Black.
“He led the league in wins with seven,” said Bymak. “Obviously when he’s on the mound we feel very confident.”
However there is a pitch count maximum at the tournament, so Black, who will head south to pitch at Miles City Junior College in Montana this fall, cannot do it all.
“It’s a bit of a chess match,” said Bymak in terms of when to pitch an ace. “Every team has one, or two pitchers they’d like out there for the big game.”
But there is also solid secondary pitching on the Expos, according to their manager.
“There five, or six guys that really give is a good chance to win,” said Bymak, adding Gregor Farquharson leads that contingent.
That pitching depth has also meant the Expos have performed better at tournaments than in regular season games.
“It’s that depth pitching that gets us some momentum,” said Bymak, noting they went 4-2 and had a berth in the final at a major tournament in Winnipeg earlier this season.
