The Saskatoon Berries return from a mostly-victorious road trip, while the Saskatchewan Rattlers face a tough road to the playoffs.
Following a four-game road trip in Alberta that saw the Saskatoon Berries post three wins and a loss, the team is now above .500 in the Western Canadian Baseball League season.
The trip ended on a low when the Berries fell 5-2 to the Sylvan Lake Gulls on Friday night, after the Gulls picked up five runs in the first seven innings and managed to keep the Berries off the board until the eighth inning. A single run marked the start of the Berries comeback, but they were held to only that run and one more in the ninth, coming up short.
On Thursday night, the Berries edged out the 3-2 win over the Gulls, with Bryce Campbell hitting a home run in second inning.
Earlier in the week, the Berries were in Edmonton to take on the Prospects and picked up wins of 14-3 on Wednesday and 3-2 on Tuesday.
East defeats West in WCBL All-Star Game
For the first time in three years, the East Division defeated the West Division in the Western Canadian Baseball League All-Star Game.
With the Okotoks Dawgs hosting the special event on Saturday, the final score stood 13-6.
Five members of the Saskatoon Berries played on the winning squad, including outfielders Carter Beck and Mac Turner, pitchers Wyatt Wiatrek and Nick Nolan and infielder Ethan Menard.
Beck also took part in the home run derby for the East Division, smashing 11 dingers in the first round to advance to the finals where he hit another five to finish as a runner up.
The Carnduff product leads the Berries with 10 home runs this season and is tied for fourth in the league.
Rattlers in must-win situation
In Saturday’s game, the two teams battled back-and-forth, entering the final quarter with a 70-70 tie. The action continued even after the Elam target score was set with the Bears holding a slight 88-86 lead.
The teams tied a few more times, but Winnipeg started pulling away after a three-point shot from Simon Hildebrandt gave them the 95-92 lead.
Emmanuel Bandoumel then made one of two free throws for the Rattlers to cut the lead 95-93, but Chad Posthumus secured the victory for the Sea Bears with a layup.
Saskatchewan’s Teddy Allen and Winnipeg’s Justin Wright-Foreman both led the game with 24 points each.
The loss drops the Rattlers to a 6-12 record, fifth in the Canadian Elite Basketball League Western Conference, behind the 8-9 Sea Bears who are holding onto the conference’s final playoff spot in fourth place.
To have any chance of making the post-season, the Rattlers must win their final two games — Thursday against the Ottawa Blackjacks and Friday against the Montreal Alliance — and the Sea Bears must lose their final three.
If that happens, the teams will have the same record, with each of them having a pair of wins and losses in their head-to-head matches this season, but the Rattlers will secure fourth place and move on to playoffs because they hold the advantage in the point differential.
Softball provincials continue
In the same division, the Saskatoon Selects Wolverines earned a bronze.
Meanwhile, in the women’s U13 A division, the Saskatoon Hustlers finished with a silver medal after losing 12-8 to the Moose Jaw Ice in the final.
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