After a long layoff, Mosquito boys provincial baseball will be making its return to Tisdale.
Tisdale has not hosted a provincial baseball tournament for “a lot of years”, said Brad Hvidston, site host co-ordinator, Tisdale Minor Ball president and head coach of the mosquito team. He said it will be a great opportunity for the community.
“It’s going to give exposure to more of our Tisdale players to a more competitive level of ball, but it also allows for Tisdale to showcase the nice facilities we have, and great community we have, and let everybody see how we can host a great event.”
After a lengthy break that saw Tisdale not sending any teams to provincials, Tisdale Minor Ball started sending teams again approximately six years ago, and the results have been fantastic, Hvidston said.
“If we go back about three years ago, our numbers were down around 100 or 120 kids and then it’s grown the last three years and we’re up over 200 kids in our minor ball program now. So it’s excellent to see that there’s that much interest. So I think it’s good that we’re hosting and get to showcase a little of that.”
Hvidston said entering provincials is not just about growing the number of players but about building skills, as there is not a lot of practice time during the regular season due to the number of games that are played.
“So this extra season, the kids are getting three, four practices a week for a good four weeks. They start to really see some improvement in their skills and their abilities.”
Hvidston admits the extra practice time may not also reap immediate rewards but it will provide benefits down the road, noting that they have noticed significant improvement since they first returned to provincials.
“We never won a game for the first two, three years that we went to provincials and then all of a sudden just through the practicing and the kids getting a better understanding of the game we won provincials again last year.”
The Mosquito AA Tier 3 provincial championships will see 16 teams from across the province, including Dinsmore, Melville, Hudson Bay, Swift Current, Tisdale, Lloydminster, Assiniboia, Unity, Canora, Prince Albert, Meadow Lake, Melfort, Weyburn and Kindersley, among others.
Teams will be broken down into four pools of four, with each team playing the other teams within their pool one time each.
Games will be played on two Kinsmen Park fields and two Fairgrounds fields during the round robin, with the semi-final contests, which feature each of the four pool winners, being played on the Kinsmen Park fields.
Hvidston would like to thank the volunteers in advance, noting they were originally expecting an eight-team tournament, so when it was expanded to 16 they needed to double the number of fields used, the number of concessions, and the number of volunteers.
“[They] are taking their weekend to help us do that. Without them it’s not going to be successful.”
