A thrilling and successful season came to an end for the Southeast A's bantam AAA baseball team at Regina's Columbus Park last weekend.
The A's were knocked out of the Baseball Saskatchewan championships with a 3-0 loss to the Saskatoon Blue Jays in their final round-robin game of the tournament last Sunday evening. The defeat followed an 8-7 win over the Saskatoon A's earlier that afternoon and a 7-6 loss to the Regina Pacers on Saturday.
“In the final game against the Blue Jays we faced a really good pitcher,” said Southeast A's head coach Trent Dorrance. “He threw a great game against us and they played great defensively. We had some hits that were robbed by them and if we would have got a couple of those hits in we could have shaken that pitcher some and got him out of the game quicker.”
Dorrance said all three of their games at the tournament were well played and close on the scoreboard with a couple of errors and missed hits costing them a chance at a playoff spot. The July 30 to Aug. 1 provincial championships came on the heels of eight members of the club capturing a gold medal with Team South East at the July 24-27 Estevan 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games baseball tournament. Three days before the Summer Games started, the A's wrapped up their Regina Baseball league season with a 4-2 loss to the Pacers in the league championship game.
“It was along week,” he said. “If it were spaced out a little bit between those two tournaments that would have made a difference for sure. The kids were a little bit tired and they did have a high in (the Summer Games). That's a lot of baseball in 10 days.”
A few more members of the A's also competed with the South East boys volleyball team at the Summer Games from July 27-30. Their participation on the volleyball court meant they had to miss the A's first game at the Baseball Saskatchewan championships.
Dorrance said this past season can be called a fantastic success despite falling in the league final and the round robin of the provincial championships. He said the kids exceeded his expectations this year by finishing first in the Regina Baseball league with a 13-5-2 regular-season record and to then win the baseball gold medal in the Saskatchewan Summer Games was incredible.
“My goal for provincials was to make it to the semifinals and we just came up a little bit short,” said Dorrance, noting they'll be starting fresh next year with 10 of their 12 players graduating to the midget ranks. “We were basically one run short of getting there, so everything I wanted to do with this team was fulfilled.”
