Giant-killer Legionaires clinch MJBL title in grand style

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This article was published 26/07/2023 (823 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the first time in 13 years, the St. Boniface Legionaires are Manitoba Junior Baseball League champions.

The Legionaires put the icing on a dominant finals performance with an 11-0 mercy-rule victory in five innings over the Elmwood Giants to sweep the best-of-five series 3-0 at Koskie Field on Wednesday.

It’s the club’s 10th league title and the third since rejoining the MJBL in 2007.

It’s also the first time since 2017 that the MJBL crowned a new champion, as the Giants’ historic five-year reign came to a screeching halt.

“It’s awesome,” said shortstop Kaden Rozdeba, in his second year with the Legionaires. “Great to get a win like that. It was an electric game all the way through, the boys loved it.

“This is a great group of guys, it was amazing to do it with these guys, I couldn’t ask for anyone else. Super proud of everyone on the team, we all came together and got it done.”

It was a fitting outcome to the series in many ways.

The Legionaires had the Giants’ number this season, something no club has been able to say over the last half-decade. St. Boniface won three of four meetings during the regular season, outscoring Elmwood 36-14 in those contests, and appeared fearless against the dynasty on the big stage, outscoring the Giants 25-7 and outhitting them 36-14 en route to the sweep.

“It’s a good feeling,” said head coach Jason Evanochko, who managed the club to a championship in his second season at the helm. “When I took the team last year we were a young group, few under-agers and we had some talent there. And this year, I just felt that we had a really good chance, and here we are.

“You play the game, things go wrong — sometimes they go terribly wrong. And other times they go right, and tonight, just everything went right.”

The Legionaires wasted no time jumping on Giants’ starting pitcher Tyler Smith, the son of famed Goldeyes’ hurler Donnie Smith.

After a two-run first inning, Tyler found himself in another jam in the next frame with the bases loaded and Rozdeba at the plate.

Rozdeba, who hit a grand slam in the sixth inning of Game 1 to put the series-opener on ice, launched his second grand slam of the series to deep left field to put the Legionaires up 6-0 and with one hand already on the trophy.

The Strathclair product finished his outstanding finals series five-for-11 with a walk and nine RBI while scoring five times himself.

“It was pretty good, but for that to happen I need people to get on base before me and the whole team went together to do that,” said Rozdeba, 18. “It’s amazing that it happened, but I can’t take all the credit for it.”

Matters only got worse in the third inning, as Zach Evanochko sent a moon shot over the centre-field wall to score another three runs and swell the Legionaires’ lead to nine runs. It was all she wrote after the visitors tacked on another two runs in the fifth inning to clinch the title by the mercy rule.

On the bump, the Legionaires received another solid outing from a starting pitcher as Zachari Teffaine struck out six batters while conceding just four hits and two walks in five innings of work.

On the other side, a dominant run that saw the Giants have their way with the league for much of five years came to a disappointing end.

Three players — Kevin Burnett, Tanner Boyle and Justin Scott — who were all anchors for the club during its dynasty, have played their last games as Giants.

“Just shocked,” said Scott, a 22-year-old centre-fielder. “We struggled at the start of the year and there was a bit of question, but as the year went on the group gelled and, really, we felt like we had enough to win it. We just weren’t able to get it done.”

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Scott, who finished the series two-for-nine with two walks, one RBI and two scores, had tears in his eyes as he thought about coming up just short despite the club’s bumpy season. The Giants had a significantly younger team this season compared to 2022, losing six players from last year’s squad.

“Yeah, we compete. We didn’t lose due to lack of effort, everyone competed. We had a lot of new guys and they played well and I’m proud of them,” said Scott.

“That’s about it. Just proud of the young guys for stepping up and playing good baseball.”

Jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jfreysam

Joshua Frey-Sam
Reporter

Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.

Every piece of reporting Josh produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.