DIDSBURY - The Didsbury Jets Mosquito AA baseball team did very well at provincials against teams from mostly bigger centres.
After having a strong regular season, the Jets qualified for the tier 2 mosquito provincials, which were held during the August long weekend in Barrhead.
Heading up the coaching staff for the Jets, which features 10- and 11-year-olds, was Beau Riedel.
Despite some wet conditions and tough competition, the Jets had a lot of fun, said manager Brad Blatz.
"This is the first time that I can remember that Didsbury has put in a AA team at any level," said Blatz. "It was nice to be able to go and compete at that level. The boys did really well."
Blatz said there was a lot of rain and several rain delays at the provincials.
"We came up just short of making the semifinals," he said. "There was a lot of rain so several of the games got bumped back so there were big, long rain delays. It was a challenging schedule to try and get the boys playing. The organizers did a tremendous job of getting everything ready and playable."
Blatz said the players performed very well over the weekend despite a bumpy first game against the eventual provincial champions from Stettler.
"That was probably the wettest game we played," he said. "We lost big. There was about a combined four-hour rain delay in a game that would normally take two hours. The boys were frustrated but battled through."
Didsbury fared much better in their second game, beating Beaumont handily 19-9.
"They rebounded well," said Blatz.
In their last game, the Jets fell 11-9 in a close one to Red Deer.
"That would've been against the top mosquito team in all of Red Deer," he said. "For our little town, we gave them a good run. If we would've come up on top in that game we would've made the semifinals and kept going. That ended our weekend. All things considered, the boys did pretty good."
Blatz said the team really improved over the season, which culminated in the good showing at provincials.
"A lot of the kids hadn't played competitive baseball before," he said. "The biggest thing was how the kids improved on the pitching side. We had nine kids up in Barrhead this weekend and seven of them pitched. Baseball has fairly restrictive pitch count rules. You need to have a lot of pitchers. At the beginning of the season that was the biggest question: are we going to have enough pitching to compete."
Blatz said the team benefited having experienced pitching coach Harold Northcott come out and work with the team.
"He's extremely knowledgeable and has coached at all levels," said Blatz. "We were able to get him to come out a few times a month and that made a world of difference, not just for the kids but also the coaches. I think the coaches learned as much as the players. That made a big difference."
Another highlight of the weekend for the Jets was the home run derby on Aug. 4 at a mini-diamond, said Blatz.
"Most of our kids came out and participated and I think every kid hit one if not more out of the park," he said. "They were all thrilled. They were thinking big leagues. It was a lot of fun."
