While Innisfail's senior baseball Indians faced trials for their championship, and the juniors loaded up their squad for the western finals, the local peewee team has already brought a title back home.
The Innisfail Peewee Indians claimed a provincial title last month.
The local peewee team, comprised of players between the ages of 10 and 12 – with half of the 12 players from Innisfail and the rest from various locales in the region -- earned the gold medal at last month's A Division Tier II Community Provincial Championship in Edmonton.
“They came and worked hard, and we were by far the youngest team in the tournament,” said head coach Kent Baumgardt, who was assisted by Tom Deruyter, Al McCullough and Rob Simpson. “The tournament is a good step, a good starter. It is a pretty decent calibre of ball. It is kind of the first step, the first stage of baseball for those age of boys.
“We hope to build and develop these boys for further levels of baseball,” he added. “From here they can hopefully move on to AA and maybe some of the boys can move on to AAA later on.”
The Indians went undefeated in the tournament last month. In the gold medal game on July 21, the Indians defeated the host team, South Jasper Place, by a score of 17-7.
Baumgardt said the team began practising in the last week of June, and then played tiering games in July before the provincials.
“The key was development. We had an exceptional set of young men,” said Baumgardt. “They came to the practices. They worked hard. They hit the diamond and played hard. They had lots of fun. That is what it is about at this level.”
Despite being the youngest team in the tournament, Baumgardt said the local peewees' title success cannot be considered an upset.
“I would not call it an upset because we played very hard. We deserved to be there. We never lost all weekend,” said Baumgardt. “That goes to show the commitment the boys had.
“As a coaching staff we are very proud of them,” he added. “We hope to see them back and keep developing from this point forward, and keep moving on.”
