Sox bring home Provincial Gold

Today’s story is dedicated to the memory of Eddy Poulin who passed away last Thursday night. One of the nicest and kindest man I ever knew.  The grandfather of two of the Sox ball players who brought home the Gold Medal this past weekend, Charlie ‘Chuckles ‘ Rogal and Hank ‘the Tank’ Rogal. That is only two, he has many other talented children and grandchildren who will truly miss their Papa.

The Midget Sox have capped off their short three week season with a Gold Medal in the Midget A Provincial Final tournament held down in Chestermere. This was the second week in a row the boys of summer traveled south and played. A lot of miles in a short time but well worth it in the end. Nothing compares to winning the Provincial Gold!

The weather wasn’t the greatest down in Chestermere. Maybe they should have held the tournament here. Bassett Field was available.  We finally had sunshine for Friday, Saturday and Sunday (and even some heat)! Whereas, most of weekend down south they had some rain delays to deal with.

In their first game on Friday night, after the rain delay, the Sox played Leduc. When the game was finally called due to darkness, the Sox had won 15-7.

The next day their game against the host Chestermere the boys faced a hot pitcher. His stuff was good and the Sox couldn’t touch him for any hits going down swinging, The final score in this one 3-1 for the host team, the Crushers.

The Sox third game late Saturday was delayed due to lightning. Umpires know the one thing you don’t want to do is play during a lightning storm. Over the years there has been a number of ball players struck down and killed with a lightning bolts. When the game finally resumed the Sox won 4-1 over Parkland Twins.

The Sox with two wins and a loss. This resulted in three teams with the same record. The runs for and runs against formula now coming into effect, the Sox would finish in first place. The Twins and Crushers having to  play a tiebreaker game Sunday morning for second place. The Twins winning this one and faced off against the Sox in the Gold Medal game on Sunday.

The final game was another tight pitching duel. The Sox with home team advantage trailed by one run for most of the game until the bottom of the sixth inning. With two outs the Sox would rally and go ahead leading the game by three runs. Top of the 7th inning the Sox defence would shut the door on the Twins would could not score. The Sox win! 

Head coach Tyler Warawa and the Lakeland North Stars lost to Wainwright on Tuesday night at home. The boys facing a tough pitcher throwing them curve balls. The drizzling rain didn’t help but it was the same for both teams . Six of the boys off this team were selected to play for the Zone 7 team that will be playing in the summer games held in Cold Lake on the August 17th weekend.