The U18AAA North Winnipeg Pirates are a prime example of how anything can happen when a team comes together at the right time.
The Pirates, who won the Baseball Manitoba U18AAA City Championship over the Winnipeg South Wolves last weekend, were not expected to lift the championship trophy only a couple of weeks ago.
At the end of June, the third quarter of the season, the Pirates were in the middle of the pack, holding a 10-9 record and multiple games back of the top teams, such as Winnipeg South.
Then, once July hit, so did the Pirates batters, as they began going on a late regular season run.
To start the month, the Pirates swept the St James A’s and outscored them 54-13 in a four-game regular season series, which immediately began rocketing them up the standings.
Later that week, the Pirates extended their win streak to six games with two hard-fought 6-5 wins over the Bonivital Black Sox as they closed out the regular season.
Heading into the playoffs, the Pirates were flying high, and no one was stopping them.
In the first round of the semi-finals, the Pirates took on the Elmwood Giants, a team they lost to three times in the regular season.
But come Game One, the Pirates showed they were a completely different team than when they last met.
The Pirates won game one of the series 2-1 and game two the following evening 3-0 to advance to the city championship.
Then, the Pirates and Winnipeg South split Games One and Two of the series.
The following night, July 21, the Pirates put on one of their best performances of the season, driving in 10 runs against the league’s best regular-season team and winning the city championship by a score of 10-5.
“It’s how these guys bought in,” said Pirates head coach Rhys Morris. “We have a lot of different things we do on this team that maybe these kids haven’t really done before in terms of how we run this team, and everyone bought in. It wasn’t just the coaches holding everyone accountable for our expectations, it really came within the team. Some of the best teams I’ve been a part of have really come from within themselves and when the team buys in and the team is the reason that we are doing the things we are doing, that’s when winning culture is built.”
Morris highlighted third-year veteran players Gilbert O’Connor and Matthew Evanochko, who helped the team establish a winning culture this season.
This was their first time coaching the U18AAA Pirates for Morris and his coaching staff, so having them on the team played a huge role in helping the team come together at the most important time of the season.
“Ever since we got together in April and started practicing and working out together, we really built a good team comradery and got better as baseball players as the year went along,” said Morris. “They (O’Connor and Evanochko) really helped us set the tone for the expectations we had as a team and what we were looking to do this year in terms of winning. This coaching staff knew it was going to be a big year for us to get to know everyone and figure each other out and those two were monumental in setting the standard of what we want this program to be moving forward.”
Winning the cities also helped them qualify for Tier 1 Provincials at Charleswood South, where they can be eligible for the 2024 Baseball Canada 18U Nationals and the 2024 Western Canada Championships.
Morris said that if they continue to maintain their recent stretch of play, they should be just fine when competing at another heightened level.
