Two out of three ain’t bad, but it wasn’t enough for these Outlaws to advance.
The Okotoks Outlaws had the strong pitching and defence part down pat, but struggled at the plate to fall out of medal contention as hosts of the Baseball Alberta 15U AA Tier V Provincial Championship, July 26-28 at Conrad Field.
“I felt that we had a better team than the others that were here,” said Outlaws head coach Gabe Amyotte. “I felt we were deeper in terms of our pitching staff, if everything had fallen into place it would have been fantastic.
“The team as a whole played defence really well, better than they played all year. Our pitchers that threw this weekend were fantastic, you just can’t win a baseball game with one run.
“We gripped the bat a little bit in tight games, the bats went silent a little bit and that unfortunately was the story of the weekend.”
Okotoks opened the tournament with every facet of the game working, earning a 12-3 victory over the Innisfail Hawks on July 26.
“It was a 1-0 game after five innings for us,” Amyotte said. “Ian Crackel who started that game, threw 50 pitches and was lights out, they couldn’t touch him. And then our bats came alive at the end of the game.”
The Outlaws then battled a tough Olds team, the eventual provincial champions, and fell by a 4-1 score despite a strong effort on the mound from pitcher Nate Charlton.
“A couple mistakes, they score a couple runs and we couldn’t recover,” the coach said.
Okotoks then entered must-win territory in its round-robin finale against the Red Deer Braves, needing a victory to earn a spot in the gold medal game.
The visitors capitalized late, turning a tight game early on into a 12-4 triumph.
“They got some lucky hits, found some gaps,” Amyotte said. “And offensively we just couldn’t recover.”
The privilege of hosting the championships might have had a couple different impacts on the players.
“Two sides to the coin,” the coach added. “I think the boys really appreciated that the parents put this fantastic event together. At the same time I think there was some added pressure when it came to the game, playing in the Okotoks community in front of family and friends that came out to watch, I think they felt a little bit of stress, a little bit of pressure.
“But I know they enjoyed it.”
Okotoks endured a difficult start to the season, but improved significantly in the summer, finishing with a 5-1 mark down the stretch.
The team entered provincials on the right kind of form.
“It wasn’t our first year to go to provincials with this group, with the mixed cast that we’ve had,” Amyotte said. “Hosting a four team tournament at provincials was fantastic. The organizer, our team manager this year Seona Noseworthy, pulled off a fantastic provincials from the opening ceremonies to the concessions to the organization, everything was good.”
