The Moose Jaw Canucks might not have had the greatest regular season heading into the Baseball Saskatchewan 18-and-under AA Tier 4 provincial championships, but they ended up putting together an impressive showing to close out their campaign.
The Canucks reached the tournament semifinal on Sunday morning at Blackwell Diamond before dropping a back-and-forth decision to the Saskatoon Amigo A’s, falling 7-6 in their closest game of the tournament.
It was a solid finish for the local crew, who took a 3-19 record into provincials but ended up playing some of their best baseball of the season before falling just short of the gold medal game.
Moose Jaw opened round robin action on Friday night in style, hammering out a 13-2 win over the Carnduff Astros. They ran into an offensive battle in their second outing on Saturday morning, dropping a 15-10 decision to the Canora Reds to set up a winner-take-all battle with the Carrot River Loggers for a spot in the semifinal.
That contest on Saturday night saw Carrot River strike early to take the lead, but a six-run fourth inning would put Moose Jaw in control, and they’d never look back on their way to a 12-6 victory.
That set the stage for the semifinal, where the Canucks and A’s exchanged the lead a few times throughout before Saskatoon struck late to secure their berth in the final.
Saskatoon then capped off an undefeated weekend by defeating the Swift Current 57’s 9-6 for the gold medal -- with their game against the Canucks their closest of the weekend.
