SPORTSHOUND: Bonnyville AA U18 Braves brave the heat in Grande Prairie

The Bonnyville AA U 18 Braves packed their bags and loaded up for a long road trip to Grande Prairie to play another three game weekend. Quite the long haul for a two day weekend. Not to mention all the fires burning in that part of the province. Driving up through Fox Creek and seeing all the burned out areas is quite the eyeopener and, hopefully, some rain in the near future will help out.

It was another weekend with only nine players that could make the trip, which is not ideal when traveling six hours and hoping no one gets hurt or sick. The first game was at 3pm on Saturday against the Barrhead Orioles.

Ethan Walgren who has been having a great year pitching was on the mound and pitched a complete five inning game. Giving up only three runs on three hits while striking out another five. The mighty Casey Warawa, who is the Braves leadoff hitter, has been crushing the ball this year going 4-4 with 5 RBIs. Cade McConnell who made his first appearance of the year due to some injuries jumped right in going 2-3 with a beauty triple and 4 RBI.

At the end of the day, the Orioles couldn’t catch up to Walgren’s heat, plus the fact the Braves’ bats were wicked hot. The Braves finished this one off with the mercy run leading by 10 runs at the bottom of the fifth inning. The final score was 13-3 for the Braves.

 

 

After a smokey Saturday, the Braves woke up to a nice Sunday morning with back to back games, starting off against the host GP Reds. This was going to be a tough game against a very good Reds team.

Rookie pitcher Cadogan Rachynski was on the mound and threw another excellent game. He pitched five innings giving up only three runs while striking out nine batters. Heaton Houle came in relief pitching two very strong innings, not allowing a run while striking out three. Heaton kept the game tied at 3 sending it into the bottom of the 7th for a dramatic finish.

Mighty Casey Warawa was able to get on base, steal 2nd, and then get advanced to third on a ground out. With two out, runner 90’ away, and Kobe ‘the Cobra’ Warawa, who was already 3-3 at the plate with a triple on the day, was up to bat. He got a fastball and hit a hard ground ball scoring the run for the walk off 4-3 Braves win. Two for three wins is not too bad, but wait there’s more.

 

 

Finally the last game of the weekend. The back end of a back-to-back, which can be the toughest game of the weekend. However, the boys were coming off a high and came out of the gate ready to play the Edmonton Angels.

The Braves turned to the big unit Carter Goreniuk and he was up for the job. Goreniuk pitched a fantastic complete six inning game, only giving up two runs while striking out six. He also went 2-3 at the plate with a couple of RBIs. Sam Atwal ,who always finds a way to get on base, stole a base and scored a couple of runs. Zach Lapointe probably had one of his best weekends catching behind the plate, taking charge of the diamond, and helping the pitchers throw such good games. He also went 3-5 and had a couple of RBI’s.

The Angels ran out of pitching and Braves kept hitting as this one turned into a bit of a run away with the Braves winning 17-2 in the end.

A 3-0 weekend, with only nine players is no easy task! The Braves are back at it next weekend, a much shorter trip time, going to the border city as the Lloydminster Twins are the host site.