Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader

Slave Lake’s U13 Heat baseball team is getting better with every weekend of play, says their coach. It would be hard to argue the point, after the Heat burned teams from St. Albert, Sherwood Park and Fort Saskatchewan, by a combined score of 35 – 14.

The weekend of games, played at Sinclair Fields in Slave Lake, started early on Saturday with the Heat taking on the St. Albert Cardinals. Colby Campbell was the starting pitcher, and he was tossing strike after strike. He went the complete game, pitching in at the plate with a solo home run. Carter Donaldson also had a good game, scoring twice for Slave Lake in the 12 – 2 victory.

The Heat then had the rest of the day off, returning to the field Sunday morning against the Fort Saskatchewan Red Sox. This one ended 9 – 4 for Slave Lake.

Owen Griffith, Connor Beauchamp and Zach Hartman took care of the pitching for the Heat. Grayson Conrad hit a home run to deep centre field and Connor McDermott and Payton Tompkins contributed by going two for three at the plate.

Sunday’s 3 p.m. game saw the Heat taking on the Sherwood Park Athletics. Conrad and Lucas Diaz were the Slave Lake pitchers and “were both solid on the mound for us,” says head coach Kevin Campbell. Colby Campbell went three for three at the plate, “and Luke Lukan-Kubel and Nathan Ghostkeeper both had good games for us as well,” Campbell says. Diaz came into the game in the fourth inning and “completely shut down the A’s offence. He threw the ball extremely well.”

The three wins give the Heat an overall record of 10 wins and two losses so far this season. Campbell expects because of the record, the team will be placed in Tier II or III in the next round of games. That hadn’t been announced by press time.

“We play this weekend,” Campbell says. “We just don’t know where yet.”