With the loss in the provincial championship game the Humboldt Midget AA Dodgers season came to a close and what a season it was.
With a provincial silver medal under their belt Midget AA Head Coach, Roger Gerwing, notes that while the end result was not what they were looking for, in hindsight it was still a pretty good season.
“We make it to that game you do want to win but all in all I think our season was pretty successful like last year we went to provincials didn’t even make it to the playoffs.”
Despite playing an average of 3.5 games fewer than the rest of the league due to multiple rain outs the Dodgers finished the regular season in second place with a stellar 13-1-2 record.
In addition to the stellar record the Dodgers also saw a number of impressive individual performances over the course of the regular season as a number of players finished in the top ten in individual categories.
Thomas Bollefer paced all Dodgers players as he finished second in the league in wins for a pitcher as he racked up four wins in six games, finishing just three wins shy of the league lead despite playing four fewer games.
Not far behind Bollefer in wins was Damon Vanderlinde who finished the season with three wins, good enough for sixth place in the league.
Vanderlinde also managed a top ten ranking in earned run average as he finished fourth in the league.
Offensively, Tanner Gerwing lead the way for the Dodgers as he piled up 16 runs batted in to sit fourth, just four runs shy of the league lead despite playing four fewer games.
Morgan Gobeil used his legs to get inside the top ten in stolen bases as he swiped 17 bases in just 16 games.
After a successful season the Dodgers moved into the playoffs where they moved through to the semi-finals before falling to the North Battleford Beavers.
In the provincial championships the Dodgers moved through to the finals where they fell victim to the Beavers 12-0. (See page 11 of the Jul. 27 edition of the Humboldt Journal for full coverage on provincials).
Despite the tough end Gerwing notes that the future looks bright for the team as they had only three, third year players and can return nine of the twelve players on their roster next year, with a solid crop of up-and-coming players.
“You look at the bantam’s, (they) won provincials this year so there’ll be a number of kids moving up from that.”
The only problem, says Gerwing is the uncertainty surrounding the team next season given the current state of Centennial Park.
“The worst thing about having this young team is it sounds like next year there’s not going to be a place for them to play because there’s 9 of the 12 that could play ball and it sounds like the midget ball diamond is going to be taken down or turned into a holding pond or something this fall.”
Read more about that in next week’s Humboldt Journal.
