Saskatchewan's under 18 baseball team didn't get the results they were hoping for at the 2015 U18 National Championships Aug. 13 to 17 at Magog, Quebec, but a local ball player who suited up for the squad still relished his time playing in the tournament.
Bienfait's Carson Perkins, 16, joined the Saskatoon Giants baseball team, who represented Saskatchewan at nationals, shortly before they left for la belle province. Perkins received the invite to join the team after putting in a strong showing, including a complete game four-hit 4-3 semifinal victory over Ontario, for U17 Team Saskatchewan in their silver medal performance at the Aug. 5 to 10 Baseball Canada Cup in Saskatoon.
“It's always some more ball,” said Carson. “I have a bunch of good buddies on this team and the coach is a good guy, so it was a great time to come out. We had tons of fun, so it was good to represent my province in a positive way.”
Team Sask finished in ninth place at the tournament by going 1-4 in round-robin play before beating Nova Scotia 11-3 in the nine versus 10 game Aug. 16 at Julien Morin Stadium in Coaticook, Que. Carson batted .1000 in the final win when he got a chance to enter the game in the sixth inning.
“We were trying to have fun, so we decided to pinch-hit me,” he said. “It was a hanging curve ball over the middle of the plate and I took a pretty good hack at it and took it off the wall for a double.”
Carson occupied his usual spot on the pitchers mound a day earlier in Team Sask's 8-4 loss to Prince Edward Island at Julien Morin. He pitched six innings in the start and surrendered seven runs, six earned, on eight hits with five strikeouts and four walks.
“It was good,” said Carson. “There was obviously some struggles. I thought I pitched a good game and they played a good game too. They put the ball in play and good things happened. It was a really close game and it was fun.”
Carson said this was probably his last baseball action of the summer, as he heads back to Vauxhall Academy of Baseball in Alberta for school in a couple weeks. He said all the games were very close and really tough, making for a good week of ball.
“We struggled a little, but we were doing our best,” he said. “It was good competition, so it was good to get out here.”
