Leader staff

After going 2-2 in their last weekend of baseball action, the Slave Lake U15 Heat are off to a provincial championship tournament this weekend in Okotoks.

Playing in Sherwood Park on the July 9 weekend, the Heat beat Castor twice and lost to St. Albert and a team called Black Gold, possibly from Leduc.

Friday night the Heat dropped a close one to St. Albert, 6 – 3. Aiden Noskey started the game on the mound and was relieved by Koltin Davis. The St. Albert pitcher had a strong game as well and the Heat were playing catch-up all game.

The second game was the first of two against Castor, with Slave Lake winning 11 – 5. Nico Diaz started the game as pitcher, giving way to Grady Beauchamp towards the end.

Game #3, also against Castor, was a 19 – 9 Heat victory. It took a comeback to win it, with Slave Lake down 7 – 1 at one point. Eleven runs in the fifth inning certainly helped.

Evander Pawliw was the starting pitcher, with Carson Maitland coming in to shut the door on any Castor comeback ideas.

The last game of the weekend was an 11 – 3 loss to Black Gold. Head coach Calvin Beauchamp calls it “a bit of a chess match throughout, with a couple of big arms going head-to-head.” These were Davone Halcrow for the Heat, with Grady Beauchamp closing.

“They pitched their ace against us and the boys had a hard time getting much going on the bats,” says Beauchamp.

Beauchamp says it was good weekend for the Heat pitchers, and should set them up well for the provincials. Both them and the bats have improved steadily throughout the season, he says.

The Heat had the help of a couple of U13 players for the weekend – Grayson Conrad and Lucas Diaz.