OLDS — Two Olds Minor Baseball Association (OMBA) teams won their divisions during the third annual Spitfires Summer Classic baseball tournament, held during the Canada Day long weekend.
The Spitfires’ U11 and U15 black teams both won their divisions and the championship rings that come with that.
In their respective finals, the U11s beat Parkland (Edmonton) 6-2 and the U15s beat Okotoks 14-0.
Forty-two teams from as far away as Fort McMurray came to Olds for the tournament, competing in age categories from U9 to U18 across nine divisions.
It’s a major fundraiser for the OMBA.
OMBA president Jeff Clattenburg says considering the rainy weather from time to time, the tournament was a huge success.
The tournament was originally scheduled to begin Friday. However, all games that day were dropped, due to anticipated rain, so the event ran the remainder of the weekend.
“The weather was less than desirable,” Clattenburg wrote in an email to the Albertan.
However, he said thanks to “incredible efforts from our volunteer community” and staff from the Town of Olds, the tournament ran successfully despite the weather challenges.
Clattenburg doesn’t anticipate any major changes to the tournament for the fourth annual edition next year.
“The tournament is at max capacity, based on the number of ball diamonds we have access to and while we are always looking at feedback and reflecting on potential changes to improve the experience of all teams, we don’t have any major plans for drastic changes at this time,” he wrote.
