Good weather on May long weekend is a rare event in this province, but the sun sure shone this past weekend as 36 AA baseball teams competed at Legion Memorial Park and Meadows Diamonds in Morinville for the Larry Rindero Memorial Tournament.
The 69-game tournament, formerly known as the Early Bird, attracted teams from as far away as Okotoks.
"This year's tournament was fantastic and the weather has been awesome," said Jason Enright, tournament director. "The play has been really great and this one has been one of the easiest we've had with really no issues."
Teams competed in four divisions over the course of four days. The Camrose Cougars won two of the four divisions, capturing the gold in both the bantam and midget divisions. The Edmonton South Sox won the mosquito division and the South Jasper Place Jays were the winners in the peewee division, following a narrow 8-6 win over the host St. Albert Cardinals Red.
The peewee Cardinals Red team were the only St. Albert team to make it to the finals in their division. The Cardinals went 3-0 in tournament play before the final, outscoring their opponents 57-14. The gold medal game saw the Cardinals battle back but come up short against the Jays. Still, head coach Tony Golab was thrilled with his team's play on Monday evening, especially considering his team was missing some key players who were injured.
"I thought the team performed stellar," said Golab. "We were battling back from a lot of injuries. We had unfortunately lost one (player) last weekend to a broken knee and another to a shoulder injury and our starting pitcher took a line right to his shin that put him out of the game.
"These kids couldn't have performed better. They really stepped up when they needed to."
The peewee AA Cardinals Red team are back in action this weekend for three games at home and will get another chance to take on the Jays Sunday at 6 p.m. at Legion park.
Provincial girls teams
One of the most interesting additions to this year's Rindero tournament was two Baseball Alberta girls' teams, playing in the peewee and bantam divisions.The girls' teams are made up of players from all over the province. Because the players mainly play on their respective local club teams, they don't get many opportunities to play together as a group. The St. Albert tournament offered both the peewee and bantam players their first chance to play together this season.
"We're improving and that's what important," said Tara Sliwkanich, head coach of the Peewee Alberta team and director of girls/women's baseball for Baseball Alberta. "This is the first time that we've ever come together as a group. We're just going to improve and improve and improve every game this tournament."
St. Albert's Morgan Knisely plays for the Baseball Alberta girls bantam team. Knisely, who plays third base, is in her second year playing for the Alberta team, having played last season with the peewee squad. Knisely hadn't previously played in the Rindero tournament and enjoyed the opportunity to play in her hometown with the provincial team.
"It's cool, it's also cool to be out and get practice too," said Knisley. "This is our first time playing together so it's good to get to know everyone."
The bantam team finished 0-3 at the tournament, while the peewee team went 1-2 with the lone victory coming against St. Albert Blue on Saturday.
Enright said having the two girls teams was one of the highlights of the tournament.
"It was awesome and I think they really opened up a lot of eyes," Enright said. "In both divisions that they played in they really showed the boys that they can play baseball, so it was awesome to have them here."
Next up for the two Baseball Alberta girls team is the Dave "Doc" Plotsky Memorial Tournament in Sherwood Park, June 1-3.
