OLDS — The Olds Spitfires U14 baseball team won silver in the Rawlings Cup tournament held Aug. 22-25 in Sherwood Park.
The tournament brings together some of the top U14 and U16 baseball talent in Alberta.
Its purpose is to showcase that talent, to hopefully get the attention of some scouts and provide a chance for some to play for Alberta in the Western Canada Prospects Series, which was held during the Sept. 1 long weekend.
The U14s were beaten 11-1 by Red Deer in the final.
However, head coach Brock Armstrong says that score doesn’t reflect the skill and creativity of the Olds team.
He noted that Jaxon Kaniusus, a member of the U14s, was named to Team Alberta for the Western Canadian Prospects Series, held during the Sept. 1 long weekend in St. Albert.
The team finished the round robin portion of the tournament with a 2-1 record, then won the quarter-final against Consort and the semifinal game against Sherwood Park in walk-off fashion.
“The Consort game was actually a walk-off wild pitch, but the Sherwood Park game was a walk-off double,” Armstrong said.
“(It was) a double down the line with runners on second and third when we were down one and those two runners scored.”
Armstrong said by the time the Spitfires reached the final, they just “ran out of gas” against a very deep Red Deer team determined to win the cup.
He said Red Deer was so focused on winning that they basically only played their best nine players, whereas as much as possible, Armstrong let all 11 guys on his team play a fairly even amount of time.
He described the U14s as “kind of Cinderella underdogs” like their U16 counterparts who won gold in that same tournament.
The U16s had a lot of young players. Armstrong said the U14s had a lot of kids on their roster that had never played together before.
“We're scrappy. We hit and we play good defence,” he said.
Armstrong said in round robin play, they faced a pitcher on the Parkland team who’s rated one of the top two or three players in the province.
“He's just a very quality baseball player and pitcher and throws harder than anybody in that tournament, and we were able to get to him,” he said.
“We were using that (tournament) as a showcase for kids in the AAA program in Olds and how well it's done, and honestly what the culture is like to play in Olds,” Armstrong said.
“It’s fantastic for anyone that comes from out-of-town. I'm one of them, from Sylvan Lake. It's truly a place that creates a culture that allows the kids to just flourish.”
He emphasized the showcase aspect of the Rawlings Cup.
“I told my players it’s the first time the people in the stands just aren't grandma and grandpa, mom, dad, uncle and sister,” Armstrong said.
“There are people who might want you to play baseball for them in the future, which isn't meant to put pressure on. It's meant to (spur) that excitement, right?”
“There was no pressure on team wins. There was nothing like that,” Armstrong said.
He said that really fed the creativity and hustle of his team.
“I went to the extent of where I wasn't really giving signs at third base. I let the kids call their steals when they wanted to steal,” Armstrong said.
“They got to call it and it really allowed them to just be there and be comfortable and (play) situational baseball.
“The kids made the plays and we had a couple of really neat plays.”
He cited one example in the game against Consort.
“We're up one in the fourth and it's a real tight battle of a game, like it's just a good baseball game, good defence, and it's going well,” he said.
“So we’ve got runners on first and third and there's a play that we run where the runner on first, he leaves early.
“So the pitcher steps off the mound and they get him into a rundown and hopefully he distracts (them) long enough that our runner from third can score.
“The boys called that play at that situation and we executed it perfectly, to the point where the guy in the rundown was able to get safe as well on second base.
“So now we went up 3-1, runner on second with two outs. And that run was vital, because runs were not easy to get at that point in the game.
“So for the boys to know the situation and have the creativity and the wherewithal and the want to (do that). It's not an easy play, guys have to understand what's going on.
“So that's just a quick little sum-up of what our group was able to do. It was super, super rewarding as a coach,” he said.
“We never thought we were even going to get out of the round robin like we did, and then to walk off must-win quarter-final and semifinal games in the bottom of seventh was a pretty special weekend for these boys.”
