Baseball provincials coming to Neepawa
- Details
- Published on Thursday, July 16, 2015
By Eoin Devereux
The Neepawa Banner
Some of the best young baseball players from across the province are in Neepawa this weekend for the 18 and under “AA” Baseball Manitoba Championship. A dozen teams, including the host squad, will compete on the local ball diamonds starting on Friday, July 17 and concluding on Sunday, July 19. The first game is scheduled for 8:30 am on Friday, while Neepawa will hit the field for its first game at 11:00 am.
Neepawa Minor Ball president Toni Kuharski said the organization is in charge of putting together the midget tournament. She noted that assembling an event of this size is a huge endeavour.
“We have 12 teams coming from across all over Manitoba. The age of the participants ranges from 15 to 18 years old, so it is a big tournament,” said Kuharski. “To put something like this together, it’s a big group effort. All the parents from Neepawa Minor Ball are volunteering a bit of their time towards the event. The Neepawa Cubs and the Farmers are also lending a hand. The Cubs are looking after the grounds for us and the Farmers are looking after some of the gate and score keeping. We’re really appreciative of everyone coming together on this big group effort.”
The competition will consist of the 12 baseball clubs being split into three pools of four teams each. Teams will play against the three other squads within their pool, with the top two teams from each pool advancing to the playoff round. The first and second ranked clubs will receive an automatic bye into the semi-finals. Neepawa has been placed in Pool C along with teams from Winnipeg, Pembina Hills and the Carillon regions.
Kuharski says they’re hoping people from across the community will come out to the games and show their support.
“It’s going to be some great baseball to watch. Some of the best players from across the province will hit the local diamonds. It should be a very entertaining weekend for fans of the game,” said Kuharski.
