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Little League Prairie champions off to
Nova Scotia
SCOTT SCHMIDT
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It was two years in the making, but the
Moduline Mets did exactly what they said they were going to do
— become the best Little League baseball team in the
Prairies.
In 2006, the same group — then at
the majors level — lost a gut-wrenching game in Regina in the
Prairie final and had to learn to live with that defeat before
finally achieving atonement this past weekend in Lethbridge.
Winning the junior AAA Prairie Championship was the only acceptable
outcome for a team that said from day one that anything less would
have been a failure.
The Mets join the younger Sports
Connection Mavericks of the majors age group in a city sweep of
Little League Prairie championships.
“We had that heartbreaking loss a
couple of years ago and I asked some of them if this erased that
feeling,” said head coach Kevin Friesen. “And everybody
said it did. To have us share this with the majors is equally as
great.
“It’s great for Medicine Hat
Little League, it injects a great deal of enthusiasm into the
program.”
A short celebration ensued after
Saturday’s 13-5 win in the title game versus Calgary Fish
Creek, but the team now has bigger things to think about. Tuesday
morning the club flew to Port Coquitlam, B.C. for the Canadian
Junior Little League Championships where they will go up against
four other regional champs plus a host team.
“This is where we wanted to
be,” said Friesen, who has waited 11 years to coach a Prairie
champion. “We knew that where was something at the end if we
won the prairies and we’ve got that opportunity now.
“We’re really looking forward
to it, we’re very excited.”
The six-team tournament will see the
country’s best-of-the-best vie for a berth in the Little
League World Series in Taylor, Michigan as Team Canada. No team
from the Hat has ever won the national title, but Friesen’s
group isn’t going for the scenery.
“We’re definitely going there
to win,” said Friesen, who noted the Canadian final has
involved the Prairie region for five straight years. “We want
to be Medicine Hat’s first Little League team to win a
Canadian championship.
“Our goal is to win it but we
don’t feel the same pressure. The pressure was to win the
Prairies, I think it was something we all wanted so badly.
“You can describe it anyway you
want, the gravy on the potatoes, the cherry on top, anything you
want. It’s theirs. If they want to win it, they’ll play
well enough to win it, trust me.”
The fact of the matter is the whole group
hates the bitterness of losing, but has now sampled victory —
and they love it.
“Right now we’re psyched to be
going and hopefully we do well,” said 14-year-old Connor
Young, who says the team’s attitude comes from the top.
“(Our coaches) have always been on our side and they always
have had faith in us that we’re going to win.
“They didn’t get down on us
and always stayed positive. We never had a negative moment.
“I think we’ll go there and
come out with a few wins, we’ll just play hard and see what
we can do.”
Another Met says that has been the
team’s MO all season long. Curtis Bader says the team had to
have the same focus for every game, especially considering their
lofty season goals.
“It was important just to take every
game seriously and develop our skills throughout the season,”
admitted Bader. “Just know that we start here, but we keep
getting better and better as we go and just to work on new things
and new plays.
“During prairies, we just took every
game as a normal game.”
It was a good strategy apparently.
Game one for the Mets goes Thursday versus
host Port Coquitlam. |
