The South Central Cubs are 15U AA baseball provincial champions after capturing the recent provincials in Brandon from July 26-28. The squad went undefeated throughout the three-day event.
The Cubs were made up of the following players from Carman, Altona, Winkler and Morden: Brody Peters, Caleb Harder, Carter Falk, Coden Thiessen, Faith Teichroeb, Gavin Rose, Josiah Enns, Lincoln Cantlon, Luke Bergman, Machray Siler, Parker Wieler, Teegan Hayward, Teigon Friesen, Chase Friesen. The coaches were Jason Rose, Donovan Bergman and Justin Cantlon.
“This was my first time coaching on a South Central regional team, so it was really cool to see how the kids from various communities came together to become good friends by the time the season was over,” said South Central Cubs assistant coach Donovan Bergman.
The Cubs didn’t participate in a league this season, so the team’s managers (Rochelle Friesen and Mandy Thiessen) worked hard to find teams against which to play doubleheaders throughout the summer.
“I believe there was only one exhibition game that we lost heading into provincials, so we felt like we had a really good chance to do something special when we got to Brandon. As coaches, we were wondering how the team would respond, going from a season of exhibition games to a tournament format where every game has significant meaning. Needless to say, the kids answered all our questions and played great baseball throughout the weekend.”
Going into provincials, South Central knew that they had a good team, so they were confident. However, they had only played one Winnipeg team and were less familiar with the other city teams in the provincials.
South Central played two tight games against Winnipeg teams in the round robin when they earned a 10-8 win over Charleswood and a 6-5 win vs. the Red River Pioneers.
“The experience of winning those tight games definitely helped prep us for the playoff games on Sunday,” said Bergman.
South Central rolled from there, going undefeated, going 6-0 over the provincials, and capturing the championship with a big 6-2 win in the final over Carillon.
“We were very fortunate that our pitching plans worked out as good as we could have hoped. We had four different pitchers throw to their max pitch count in our Saturday and Sunday games, so without those outings, things could have turned out much differently for us on Sunday.”
Winning the provincials is now the end of the road for the South Central team. A bunch of the kids will be moving up to play 18U baseball next year, and the rest will be in their second year at the 15U level.
