Battlefords fans who have been starved for live baseball for the past couple of weeks got plenty of it this weekend as the provincial Senior A baseball championships were played in North Battleford.
Fans flocked to Beaver Lions Stadium for the match ups that took place over the weekend. Teams in pool A included the Arm River Indians, the NSRBL Border City Blue Jays from Lloydminster, the Yorkton Yankees and the host team North Battleford Beavers.
Pool B included Findlater Braves, the NSRBL's Meadow Lake White Sox, Carlyle Cardinals and Cabri River Rats.
The weather put a crimp into the plans of organizers. Friday's entire first day of action was wiped out due to heavy rains which left the field unplayable.
Volunteers worked hard to clean up the field, and action got under way Saturday under clear skies. The home town Beavers got off to a fast start in their first game by shocking the Border City Blue Jays 5-3.
In other early games Carlyle beat Findlater 6-5, and Yorkton beat Arm River 10-2. In the afternoon Meadow Lake beat Carlyle 8-5, and Findlater beat Cabri 5-2.
The Beavers continued their winning ways against Arm River, winning 7-3. Meanwhile Border City lost again, 7-6 to Yorkton.
The evening action consisted of makeup games for those that were washed out on Friday. Those saw North Battleford drop a decision to Yorkton 12-2, while Meadow Lake won two more by beating Findlater 8-5 and then Cabri 9-4.
Sunday morning saw Arm River beat Border City 7-3 while Cabri lost to Carlyle 14-2.
In the semifinals on Sunday afternoon the Beavers were beaten 7-2 by Meadow Lake, while Yorkton beat Findlater 10-1.
That set up the Gold Medal final game between Meadow Lake and Yorkton, played at Beaver Lions Stadium.
In that title game, Yorkton scored first as a sacrifice bunt passed ball brought Dalane Lamb home, to make it 1-0.
The Sox threatened in the bottom of the inning. With two on and two out, Regan Beck blooped one into right centre which landed, bringing Davin Hildebrand home to tie the game
Another base hit by Gary Pauls brought home Meadow Lake pitcher Quincy Winkler from second to make it 2-1 Meadow Lake, and that would be the score after one.
In the second Jeremy Johnson's ground rule double put Yorkton in position to tie the game. But Winkler got out of the inning with two runners left on.
An RBI double by Jordan Oystrick made it 3-1 Sox with Hildebrand scoring from second, and that would be the score through two innings.
In the third, Yorkton loaded the bases with nobody out. DH Phil Sabkoh came to the plate. A wild pitch brought Lamb home from third to make it 3-2.
Then a high pop up was dropped by the first baseman to load the bases again for Ross Stilborn, who struck out. Dave Morari then was hit by a pitch to bring home Zach Rakawsky from third. An RBI single from Jeremy Johnson brought home Travis Mentanko to put Yorkton back on top 4-3, and that would be the score heading to the bottom of the third.
With two on and two out, Meadow Lake threatened in the bottom of the inning. But a diving play by Stilborn near first for the third out prevented the tying run.
In the fifth, back-to-back Yorkton singles put two runners in scoring position with no one out. An RBI single by Morari brought home Sabkoh from third for the fifth Yankees run.
A throw to try and stop Morari from stealing second was not in time, which brought a sixth Yorkton run home.
That would be all the scoring the Yankees would need.
When pitcher Logan Calanchie recorded the final strike, the Yorkton bench rushed to the mound to celebrate a Senior A title, capping off a thrilling weekend of baseball in the Battlefords.
