The Olds mosquito AA (U-11) Spitfires were "just one game short" of making it into the playoffs during the provincials, head coach Jason Jaffray says.
The Spitfires ended up in a tie for third place with a 2-2 record during the provincials, held Aug. 2-4 in Sherwood Park.
"We came up one game short," Jaffray said during an interview with the Albertan.
He said offence was the problem — at least in the first couple of games.
"Our hitting came up a little bit dry in the first two games of the tournament. We lost our game Friday night and Saturday morning, so dug ourselves a big hole," he said.
"And then Saturday night, they came alive. We put up 39 runs in the game Saturday night. I've never even heard of a baseball game having 39 runs scored."
He agreed Saturday's result, 39-24 for the Spitfires, was more like a football score. It lasted about three hours.
"That's what we said; welcome to the CFL," Jaffray said. "It was one of the more crazy games that I've been a part of."
"It was pretty much an emotional roller-coaster for everybody, all game," Jaffray said. "We were actually up 17-1 and then down 21-7. We gave up a 16-run lead and then we had a 16-run lead by the end of the game."
The Spitfires lost their first game 18-7 to Southwest Edmonton, the team that ended up being crowned provincial champions.
They were then beaten 11-5 by Leduc before winning that wild third game against Sherwood Park.
The Spitfires edged the Parkland Twins 11-9 in their final game of the tournament.
"They had the tying run on base, the winning run at the plate. So it was a good way to end the season that way; it was exciting," Jaffray said.
Overall, Jaffray is pretty pleased with how the team did during the tournament .
"It was Tier II provincials, so that's pretty good for a small town like Olds to be battling against teams like Edmonton and St. Albert and Sherwood Park in baseball," he said.
"I mean, we only had 15 kids try out for the team and we kept 12, right? So I'm sure these big city teams have a whole lot more than 15 kids trying out for the team.
"I think we probably could have done better in provincials. I think everybody was kind of disappointed that we didn't make it to the finals, as I thought we were maybe one of — if not the — strongest team at provincials," he added.
"But that's baseball."
Jaffray is pretty happy with how the season as a whole went too. The mosquito AA Spitfires compiled a 16-11-1 record.
"It was a very successful season, I think. Everybody enjoyed their time."
He sees great potential for the future.
"We have a young team. We had two underage kids on our team who weren't even mosquito-age who played. And we have I think six or seven kids who are moving up to peewee next year, so (for) a lot of them — even the second-year kids — it was their first year playing mosquito AA," Jaffray said.
"We've got five returning kids and I think we have a good group of boys that are going to be moving up to mosquito next year. I know some of them came out to watch some of the ball that the boys were playing and I'm hoping they're interested in playing AA ball."
