The ball fields in Sylvan Lake were busy June 2-4 with dust and cheers in the air last weekend, when the town hosted the Sylvan Lake Minor Baseball Tournament.
“It was a great, successful weekend, and everyone had a great time,” said Amy Harrison, a parent volunteer and provisional coordinator for tournament.
A total of 16 teams across a variety of age and skill levels played in the tournament that entailed seven local teams from Sylvan Lake playing and nine away teams from Eckville, Sundre, Camrose, Olds, Lloydminster, Spruce Grove, Ponoka and Maskwacis.
Participants played at Bantam, Pee Wee and Mosquito levels - a group of players that Harrison described as “a lot of levels of talent, all in one tournament.”
“I think, with the Mosquito division, there were some really talented teams playing against us. We had a provincial A team competing from out of town, and also a provincial AA team playing, too. It wasn’t all just house teams that registered,” said Harrison. “There were some serious players out there.”
Despite the local Mosquito division teams not doing as well as they had hoped to, Harrison stressed “we still gave them a good run for their money in individual games. We just didn’t pull off the wins to get the points.”
“We had some of our Sylvan kids that were really crushing home runs, and making some amazing plays in the field,” she added.
Harrison said in the Mosquito division alone, there were at least eight home runs hit by local teams - an accomplishment the young athletes in the division ought to be proud of.
“Honestly, seeing some of the kids, and how far they’ve come in the month we’ve played - it’s amazing and a very proud moment for Sylvan Lake minor ball,” said Harrison. “We also had lots of people donating, and tons of people buying 50-50 tickets. It was a very successful weekend for a tournament. We had tons of people tell us how great the tournament was, and how they want to come back next year.”
In the Mosquito (U11) division Lloydminster defeated Spruce Grove (11-2) to take first place in the first pool. In the second pool, Olds defeated Sundre 9-4 to take second place. In the third pool, Sylvan Lake Y won (13-8) playing against Sylvan Lake H. In the fourth pool, Sylvan Lake R won its game against Sylvan Lake G (14-9).
In the Bantam (15) division, Camrose took first place after a 15-10 win over Sundre, and Sylvan N clinched third place, with an 11-10 win over Sylvan Lake L.
Ponoka took first place from Sylvan Lake (22-17) in the Pee Wee division finals. Eckville was allotted a third place standing by default, after Maskwacis forfeited in their game for third.
samuel.macdonald@sylvanlakenews.com