This year, the Humboldt Dodgers had one of the best experiences a team could ever have.
It had already been quite a season for the 16-18-year-old AAA Midget players who won the provincial title in July.
Now the team is back from representing the province of Saskatchewan at the 2011 Baseball Canada Midget AAA National Championships, August 18-22 in Regina.
Although they lost in their medal qualifier, Saskatchewan ranked fourth out of the ten teams from across the country, and it was another amazing weekend of baseball for the team and its coaches, Roger Gerwing and Mike Suchan.
They came out of the weekend with a total of four wins and two losses, and a feather in their caps when they won the first game of the round robins 6-4 against Ontario, the gold medal winners of the tournament. The Dodgers were the only team to beat the Ontario team in the tournament.
Gerwing said the boys played well in all aspects of that first game, and Dean Jaeb got the win with his pitching. Jaeb was also named MVP for that game.
In their second game, the Dodgers were up against the team from Nova Scotia, a solid club according to Gerwing, that they managed to keep under control with a score of 5-2.
"The team played well, and their defence was awesome," Gerwing said. "They made a couple double plays and Peyton Hillsdon, who we brought in for the tournament, pitched well and was named MVP for the game."
The Dodgers won the next two games of the round robin with an easy win of 11-1 over Newfoundland and a more challenging win of 3-1 over New Brunswick, which brought them into first place in their pool.
Again, two of the Dodgers' players were named MVP for pitching, Craig McWillie in the third game and Karsten Hoehn in the fourth game of the round robin series.
Then, Gerwing said, the team played Alberta and ran up against some pitching he could only describe as being "at the level of professional league baseball". This game they lost 11-1, as well as the bronze medal game against Quebec, which they lost 7-0.
Dodgers' player Cam Blair was one of three players to win an award in the tournament. Blair was named overall top defensive player of the tournament.
Gerwing said that having the fans come out to watch the team play at the Nationals was really supportive for the team, and both coaches would like all the fans that came and supported the team throughout the year to know how much it was appreciated.
There is one result Gerwing is hoping will come out of the team's success this year, and that is for the future of baseball in Humboldt.
"With the success of the team this year," Gerwing added, "I hope it will be an incentive for the city to speed up the process of getting some new ball diamonds built in the city."
Gerwing and Suchan would also like to thank the sponsors who helped the team financially this year.
