A coach and a player from the St. Albert Minor Baseball Association were honoured at the Baseball Alberta awards banquet Saturday.
Jason Enright, a peewee community coach, was the recipient of the Ted Rudd Minor Coach Award. It’s presented annually to a minor coach who directed his or her team with sportsmanship.
This is only the fifth time in the last 40 years a St. Albert coach has received the award.
Enright guided a collection of house league players from St. Albert and Morinville to victory at the peewee community tier II provincials in Athabasca.
Jakob Brinkhof was also acknowledged as the peewee performance player of the year. Presenting the award was Gene Tenace, the 1972 World Series most valuable player and former Toronto Blue Jays’ hitting coach.
Brinkhof started out in T-ball seven years ago and progressed up the ladder to the peewee performance Cardinals. At provincials he tossed a three-hitter during a 63-pitch effort over five innings, as the Cardinals blanked first-place SEEBA 10-0 for their only win at the tournament.
The road to the 3A provincials for the St. Albert Skyhawks in high school volleyball ended in Saturday’s semifinals at the Edmonton zone tournaments.
The boys lost 20-25, 25-21, 13-15 to the Louis St. Laurent Barons at Edmonton Christian High School. The girls also lost in three sets to the host Holy Trinity Trojans.
The Skyhawks were ranked second in their respective pools. The playoffs featured 10 boys and 11 girls teams.
The Edmonton Christian Lions defeated the Barons 2-0 in the boys final. Holy Trinity swept the Ardrossan Bisons in the girls final.
Craig Tomas was named the St. Albert Tigers’ most valuable player at their recent annual general meeting.
The veteran Tiger led the team with a .478 batting average in 23 plate appearances. On the mound he was 3-1 with a 2.83 ERA. In 35 innings pitched he struck out 21.
The pitcher of the year was Sean Maguire. The southpaw posted a 3-2 record, with two saves and two complete games in five starts. He fanned 31 batters during 30.9 innings and his ERA was 4.65.
Kyle Hesse was the team’s rookie of the year. He batted .286 in 28 plate appearances.
The co-winners of the Hardman Award were Kevin Hardman and Derek Dallorto. The award is presented to the person who is always doing whatever he can for the team, while going above and beyond what is expected of team members.
