Only hours after the Moose Jaw Prairie Dogs booked their spot in the final with a mercy-rule win over the Regina Blue Jays, the Moose Jaw Canucks punched their ticket with a 4-0 win over the Lumsden Cubs at Vanstone Diamond on Saturday afternoon.
As a result, the two teams will meet in the Baseball Regina 11U AA championship final at 3:30 p.m. at the Parkhill Park diamond.
One might think following suit and taking a lopsided win in the semifinal would have been the best way to go, but Canucks coach Shane Sowden felt much differently.
“Hopefully this actually serves us really well, it’s nice that over the last two weeks we’ve played a lot of really tight games and it’s nice to see the focus,” he explained. “Even last night, Mac (Sowden) made one of the nicest plays of the year at first base, they just ripped one and he just reacted. And we talked about it later about what the difference was, and it was ‘I was focussed’… so for our guys, it was just nice to face a little adversity and hopefully if it’s tight tomorrow we’re prepared and it serves us well.”
One thing that’s certain is the Canucks are getting things done on the mound right now. Their hurlers combined to strike out nine over six innings and allowed only one Lumsden baserunner to reach third.
“We threw a few guys out today and made some nice plays and at this level that’s always important,” Sowden said, pointing out that catcher Luke Pratte gunned a pair of baserunners down at third.
With their pitchers tossing as well as they were, the offence needed to do just enough to get things done, and that was what happened – Max Craig and Pratte scored to lead off the game, Craig added an insurance marker in the third and Sam Gaucher scored their fourth run in the fifth to account for all the offence in the contest.
That sets up the big game Sunday, with the Canucks having won the previous two meetings, including a 13-12 barnburner two weeks ago.
“It’ll be fun,” Sowden said. “In the big scheme of things, it’s awesome that the two teams are in the final because it shows where we’re going and how good the future looks the next few years. That’s the big thing.
“It sounds cheesy, but even the kids are saying it sucks that one of us has to lose tomorrow. We’ve beat them twice this season, but they’ve been playing really well and we know we’re not unbeatable. We’re pumped, and it’ll be a lot of fun.”
