SUNDRE – The Carstairs Royals set the pace early on May 28 during a game in Sundre when Owen “Gibby” Gibson, who was first up to bat, smashed an out-of-the-park homerun right off the get-go.
From there, the head coaches from both U18 squads in the recreational Chinook Baseball League said the contest was a back-and-forth match that ultimately went in the favour of the home team who came back from a two-run deficit in the final moments of the game to claim a narrow 15-14 victory.
“We ended up winning in our last at bat,” said Sundre’s head coach Curtis Bergen. “We got ’em in the bottom of the seventh to get a win at home, which is always nice.”
Royals head coach Brad Holloway called the outcome a “bit of a heartbreaker.”
But both the game and the competition were great, added Holloway.
“It was back and forth, good defensive plays, lots of good hits too, which is nice to see,” he said. “It’s much more entertaining and exciting for players and fans when you’ve got balls in play and it’s not just walks and hit-by-pitch.”
Recalling that initial homerun that Gibson sent flying out of right field off the first pitch, Holloway said, “It was hilarious, because Gibby was joking in the dugout beforehand. He was like, ‘Guys, I feel like I should just swing as hard as I can at the first pitch to see if I can take it out.’”
Before long, the Royals had a pool going with some players placing $5 on whether he would pull it off.
“And then first pitch, he gets absolute no doubt over right field to start the game. That was amazing,” said Holloway. “He made probably 75, 80 bucks in that one swing.”
The teams went head-to-head on Wednesday, May 28 amid perfect conditions to play ball.
“That was our first home game this year,” said Bergen, adding the Stealers had previously dealt with a roughly two-week period of intermittent and untimely rainfalls that resulted in three cancelled games that left them “trying to get back on track.”
Both coaches also acknowledged there reached a point in the game when there was some banter between the teams, which isn’t uncommon but tends to remain in good fun.
Out on the field, there was a little intensity, said Bergen.
“Both teams were quite aggressive on the bases, putting pressure on each other,” he said, adding there were some walks here and there but that it was overall a good game.
The minor ball season is a short one that this year was made even shorter on account of the rain, but considering the game was only their third to date, the Stealers have so far had a good run, he said.
“We’re two wins, one loss,” he said, adding they would be playing on road this past weekend at a tournament in Lacombe.
“Tournaments just seem to get everything really going,” he said.
Asked where the Stealers’ strengths lay, the coach said his team has some strong pitchers.
“I would say hitting is probably one of our strong suits,” he added.
The roster has only 10 players, and seven of them are 16-year-olds, with two 17-year-olds and one 18-year-old, he said.
“It’s nice to see we have quite a strong crew of 16-year-olds so that moving forward, that bodes well for the next couple seasons,” he said, pleased to have been able to field a U18 squad as there were none last year.
During practices, he said coaches drill the players on the fundamentals such as base running and situational plays.
Over the weekend, the Stealers brought home a silver medal after going undefeated following four round robin games that brought them up against a team from Millet in the gold medal final.
“We lost 17-16 in the gold medal game,” said Bergen.
“We were down 12-9 in the top of the seventh inning, we scored seven runs to go up 16-12 but we couldn’t quite hold them down and they scored and beat us by one in the final at bat,” he said.
Nevertheless, the boys played hard and had a good weekend.
“All in all, the boys played great,” he said, adding they just came up slightly short against a team they had defeated the day prior due to a “few little mistakes that turned out to be costly in the end. But that's how it goes.”
As for the Royals, Holloway said they’ve been having a good season as well.
“We’ve had a lot of really close games; the competition this year is pretty evenly matched,” he said.
“We’ve had a lot of one-run games and lots of fun on the diamonds with all the teams.”
While the team has some good hitters who can feel the ball, playing consistently seems to be an ongoing challenge, he said.
“Not everybody is on at the same time,” he said.
But they are a close-knit crew with plenty of heart and a positive frame of mind, he added.
“Doesn’t matter what’s going on in a game,” he said. “Whether they’re having a good game or a bad game, they’re able to pick each other up, shake it off – you know, not getting in that bad headspace.”
Holloway also expressed a fondness for his experience as a coach.
“We’ve had some of these kids playing together and being coached by the same guys since they were in T-ball,” he said.
“So the camaraderie is huge. And to watch these kids develop from, you know, being a liability with a baseball bat in their hands to hitting tanks out of right field on a first-hit swing, it’s wild.”
