The tough challenges that the North Battleford Midget AA Beavers faced throughout the regular season proved to be a valuable learning experience for the young squad.
Thanks to six wins in the final eight games of the campaign, the Beavers were able to wrap up their year with a silver medal that they picked up at the Tier III provincial championships in Saskatoon on July 23.
“The guys are really proud of their accomplishment and they had a lot of fun at the tournament after putting in a lot of hard work,” Beavers head coach Bert Benoit said.
“We put a lot of time into many different areas of our game, and I think playing in the league that we did (the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League) really helped us out with our development as we faced a lot of stiff competition.”
While their results in the SPBL may not have shown it, the experience that the Beavers got playing against the top teams in the province played a huge part in their success at the provincial championships.
“As the year went on, our pitchers were going deeper into the game and our guys that were struggling to get some hits were turning things around,” Benoit said.
“One of the biggest improvements on our team was with our defensive play and we saw that during the tournament. The positive attitude that the guys had all season was huge as well, and I think that made a huge difference.”
After going 3-1 in the round-robin, the Beavers advanced to the championship game thanks to a wild 12-10 victory over Yorkton in the semifinal.
“They would go up to bat and knock in two or three runs and then we’d respond to tie things back up,” Benoit said.
“We never gave up and that was especially true in the sixth inning. They got ahead of us by a score of 8-6, but the guys dug in harder and deeper and we ended up taking a 12-8 lead.”
The Beavers ended up losing a lopsided 20-4 affair in the final to the North East Rangers from Melfort.
“They were a team that was full of 18-year-old players, so that made a bit of a difference,” Benoit said.
“Plus, when you are playing your fourth game in a day where the temperature was above 30 degrees, that starts to ware everyone down out there.”
With Brock Thomson the only graduating players from this year’s squad, the future is looking bright for the Midget Beavers as they gear up for the upcoming season.
“Nine of our players were in their first year of midget and we have two more guys that have one more year of eligibility left next year,” Benoit said.
“With some more guys coming up from the bantam team, it should be a pretty good squad. We’ve only been off of the diamond for a couple of weeks now, but our guys are excited to get back out there.”
