It's official: there's a AAA Junior baseball team in town!
The Humboldt Dodgers AAA Midget baseball team that won the provincials in 2011 is staying together, but they've moved into the junior league.
After years of playing ball together in the minor league, then ending their midget year with such a successful season in 2011, the players voted to stay together and reclassify as a AAA Junior team, coach Roger Gerwing told the Journal.
"They discussed it shortly after the season was over last year," he said. "It was pretty tough to get commitments out of some guys, but for the most part we've got a core of guys that we've had for the past few years, and added some younger guys just to get our numbers up."
Gerwing, who has been the boys' coach for several years, says it was either that or play in the senior men's league.
"We went to the organizational meeting in Regina, and they accepted us into the league," he explained, adding that it's probably the first time Humboldt has had a baseball team in the AAA junior league.
The new/old Dodgers began their season in a doubleheader game at home against the Moose Jaw Eagles on June 2. The Eagles won both games, 5-4 and 4-3.
The first game began well with one of their seasoned pitchers, Keenan Lukan, back on the mound and keeping the Eagles score low until the seventh inning.
"We were up 4-1, and then we just gave it to them," Gerwing said. "They basically scored four runs in the seventh inning."
While Gerwing said he thought the pitching was very good, there were a few errors that cost them in the first game.
"We just need to sharpen up on our defence," he added.
Although the Dodgers lost both games, their coach isn't deterred by the outcome.
"Those were our first two games," said Gerwing. "The whole idea is to be playing and seeing what we need to work on. We haven't practised a lot so far, so obviously as the season advances we'll get tighter."
The next three games for the Dodgers are home games as well, against three different teams. On June 9, at 4 p.m. the Dodgers face the Weyburn Jr. Beavers, followed by a second game at 6 p.m. against the Southey Eagles. On June 10 the game is at 1 p.m. against Regina.
