Mosquito ‘AA’ Storm reach semi-finals at provincials

Baseball is booming across Canada and Sylvan Lake is no different.

With the success of the Toronto Blue Jays creating a new interest in ball, Dave Pengelly, Player Development Coordinator for Sylvan Lake Minor Baseball Association, and the rest of the board are looking to create a top-to-bottom ‘AA’ program in Sylvan Lake.

This year, Pengelly and three other coaches helped create and guide the mosquito ‘AA’ Sylvan Lake Storm to a semi-final appearance against the Red Deer Braves in the provincial championships on July 29-31.

According to Pengelly, the growth in the kids games was amazing after stepping into March tryouts with limited t-ball and recreational baseball experience.

“They all worked hard and put in 2-3 practices per week with no complaints whatsoever. They worked really hard and developed into really good baseball players.”

That hard work would pay off with the Storm going 13-6 during their regular season, giving the Braves a tough semi-final game. The Storm eventually fell 11-12 in a hard fought playoff battle.

Pengelly credited the excellent inaugural season to not only the players, but also the coaching staff as well.

“We had four coaches that came in and worked hard and gave a tonne of time,” he said. “We started from the ground up in February and wanted to put this group together and we did.”

He added that two of the Storm’s coaches will move up with their kids to the new ‘AA’ peewee team in Sylvan Lake – which is part of the long term ‘AA’ development plan for Sylvan LakeMinor League Baseball. That plan includes having mosquito, peewee, bantam and midget ‘AA’ teams in Sylvan next year.

“I am part the board and from what I have been told - five years ago we were at 80 players and now we are well over 220 players,” he said. “It’s a huge growth.”

“With the kids wanting to play more competitive, it’s time for us to grow as well and provide that for them,” he added.

Part of providing competitive opportunities for baseball players in Sylvan Lake is a new Fall Ball Development Program, which runs August 30 – September 22. The program will runTuesdays and Thursdays and will feature skill development on Tuesdays and interleague play on Thursdays.

“We are going to continue to grow,” Pengelly added.

If you would like more information about Sylvan Lake Minor League Baseball you can visit sylvanlakeminorball.ca.

reporter@sylvanlakenews.com