As the baseball season has wrapped up in the Northwest, players who honed their skills in the area are still in action and will be playing for championships.
Ryan Hodgins of the Battlefords along with Rylan Rogers both played with the Holdfast Trappers this season.
Along with the Battlefords' boys, two former Wilkie baseball players, Russ Nielsen and Matt Miller also played with the Trappers this season, as they were one of the top teams in the league throughout the season in the Qu'apple Valley Baseball League.
The Trappers played in AA provincials in Yorkton during the August long weekend and won the championship 4-2 over Marysburg.
Lorne Nielsen of Wilkie and Don Hodgins of the Battlefords were also listed as coaches of the Trappers during provincials.
The Trappers are now in Morden, Man. for Western Canadians, which started Thursday and will be finished Monday.
The Trappers added one other local product to their roster for Western Canadians, as Barrett Nielsen, the younger brother of Russ and son of Lorne, was picked up as a pitcher. Nielsen played with the Regina Red Sox this summer in the Western Canadian Baseball League. The Red Sox won the championship over Medicine Hat earlier in the week.
An interesting note, both Russ and Rogers won Most Valuable Player awards while playing in the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League - Russ with the Wilkie Brewers in 2011 and Rogers with the North Battleford Beavers in 2010.
At the younger level, two players from the area are set to play in the Bantam National Baseball Championship with the Lloydminster Bantam Twins.
Blake Robertson of Unity and Layne Young of Frenchman Butte, both were teammates on the hockey ice with the Battlefords Bantam AA Barons last season and both were teammates with the Twins this season and the Rivers West baseball team in Meadow Lake at the Saskatchewan Summer Games.
Rivers West won gold in Meadow Lake and the Twins won provincials in Saskatoon and now the duos attentions turns to nationals.
Young and Robertson along with the Twins will be in Vaughan, Ont. Aug. 23 to 27.
