Giants double Wolves to win 18U provincial baseball crown

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This article was published 28/07/2024 (452 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a case of doubleheaders at the Baseball Manitoba provincials to determine the provincial titles for the AAA 18U teams.

In the Tier 1 championship, the Elmwood Giants finished the round-robin Sunday with a 4-2 win versus the Winnipeg South Wolves at Charleswood Place.

About an hour and a half later, the Giants were ready to go for the provincial title — against none other than the Wolves after both teams ended up winning four of their five games over the weekend to reach the final.

It seemed like momentum from their previous game was carrying the Giants, who broke out with seven runs in the second inning on their way to the provincial championship.

Just for good measure, the Giants added six more runs in the bottom of the sixth to defeat the home-field team 13-3.

“It was a testament to all the training that these guys put in,” said head coach Dennis Sworyk. “Everything, all the hard work, it’s a lot of hard work behind the scenes and practices, everything that goes into this.”

Although the team scored 13 runs, the star of the team was starting pitcher Luke Mineault, who pitched the full game, allowing just four hits and three runs in six innings of work.

“I don’t really pitch that much, I’m usually a catcher,” said Mineault who is playing his final year with the team. “So today was pretty special for me.”

“He did an awesome job,” said Sworyk on Mineault. “The kids all participated and you know, just an awesome feeling for the kids.”

The Giants lost their first game 3-1 against the South Central Cubs, then went on an undefeated heater, including two 12-run victories versus the Brandon Marlins and Carillon Sultans.

With the win, the squad will be heading to St. John’s for the 2024 18U National Championships (Aug 15-18).

“The strength of our team was just the motivation to just keep pushing forward,” said Mineault. “We all knew that we will never play together again, so we all wanted to do that.”

In the Tier 2 championship, the same back-to-back situation unfolded for the Bonivital Black Sox and Oildome, who played the final Tier 2 round-robin game against each other.

A 7-1 Black Sox win set the final in stone — and after an hour break, it was time for a rematch.

At the top of the sixth, It looked like Oildome might split the doubleheader and take the championship after two runs extended their lead to 10-6, the first time a team held a lead greater than two runs all game.

But the Black Sox, who relied on strong offence all tournament long, leaned on their hitting one last time, making a comeback in the bottom of the sixth with five runs to win 11-10 — taking the Tier *2 championship for the second year in a row.

“It’s always tough to take two,” said head coach Roderick Mitchell. “So usually you’re lucky if you can go for the split. But I was confident with the guys that we had.”

Ben MacDonald led the team with three runs in the victory.

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“Our offence kind of had a tough point all year long,” said Mitchell. “But to figure it out in the last few weeks here, especially this weekend, we can’t get it done without that.”

Over the tournament, the Black Sox scored 10 or more runs in every game, except for the 7-1 victory against Oildome earlier in the day. Other than a 19-13 loss to St. James, the squad went undefeated.

Black Sox relieving pitcher Ben Graham helped the team complete the comeback with a strong final two innings, striking out two players and allowing just two hits and two runs.

“It feels good, feels great,” said co-captain Leif Sigurdson. “We were in a little bit of trouble there late in the game, but I knew we had a chance and we stayed with it.”

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca