There is high-level midget AA baseball coming to North Battleford July 27-29.
It will be the 2018 Midget AA Tier 3 provincials, an eight-team tournament featuring the North Battleford Beavers and seven other teams from around the province.
The venues will be Beaver Lions Stadium and diamond No. 4 in North Battleford. For the round robin portion the eight teams are being split into two pools. Pool A includes the Macklin Lakers, Saskatoon Outlaw Braves, Sask Five Giants and Carrot River Loggers. Pool B includes the Humboldt Dodgers, North Battleford Beavers, Saskatoon Bandit Braves and Oxbow Orioles.
The action begins Friday at 2 p.m. when Humboldt takes on Oxbow at Beaver Lions Stadium while Carrot River takes on Macklin over at Diamond 4. At 5 p.m. the Beavers host the Bandit Braves at Beaver Lions Stadium while the Outlaw Braves take on Sask Five at Diamond 4.
Eight games are slated for Saturday, with the Beavers taking on Humboldt at 9 a.m. on Diamond 4 and then Oxbow at 6 p.m. back at Beaver Lions Stadium. Tiebreakers, semifinals and the gold medal game will take place Sunday.
Spectators are encouraged to come out to the action during the three days. A full concession stand will be running throughout that time.
It’s not the first time North Battleford has hosted provincials and Beavers coach Bert Benoit says fans can expect a high calibre of action.
“It’ll be some of the best Tier 3 teams in the province,” said Benoit. The various midget teams around the province are assigned to different tiers, mainly to maintain a level of competitiveness amongst the various teams involved.
The midget AA Beavers have team struggled out of the gate. But they had a strong tournament showing in Saskatoon in June and have split some of their more recent double-headers against some of the top teams in their league.
They came off four home games July 14 and 15 against the Regina White Sox and Regina Buffalos, and won two of the four games.
“We continue to get better as the season goes on,” said Benoit, who says the team is “playing the best baseball of the season right now.”
