Carillon Sultans undefeated at 18U AAA provincials

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This article was published 28/07/2022 (1069 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the end, it was tougher for the 18U AAA Carillon Sultans to make tier 1 provincials than win the whole tournament.

The local squad buzzed through the event, hosted at the Charleswood Place Baseball Facility, racking up a perfect 5-0 record and a plus-47 run differential in the round robin, easily locking up top spot and a place in the final.

It was far cry from needing an eighth inning walk-off to squeak by Pembina Hills 3-2 to earn a place at tier 1 provincials. Despite taking the eventual provincial champions to the limit, Pembina Hills went 0-4 in tier 2 provincials.

In the finals match-up against host Winnipeg South July 24, the Sultans didn’t falter, winning 4-2 despite falling behind 2-1 in the top of the fourth inning.

“You go back last week, where we almost had to play tier 2, we couldn’t get a hit, everything seemed to be going wrong for us,” coach Jamieson Krentz said after the game.

“But baseball is a funny sport. Once you get rolling, momentum is a scary thing. We just caught fire at the exact right time.”

Carillon was well situated heading into the decisive game. Their 4-0 record heading into championship Sunday meant they were able to rest up their pitchers in their final round robin game against North Winnipeg, knowing a spot in the final was already locked in.

“It kind of went exactly to plan,” Krentz said.

“The games we had penciled in as the games we didn’t have to go after, our pitchers that went out there still threw fantastic, and our bats were amazing all weekend. Things really fell into place.”

Krentz said he thought Carillon had a shot at winning this tournament from the first practice they had.

“I knew we had the team to have a chance at provincials, but never in a million years did I think we would run the table, go 6-0 and have three mercies,” he said.

Their record meant the Sultans had their best two pitchers ready to throw in the final, but Ryan Powers wasn’t needed, as Cedric Lagasse replicated his effort in the qualification game, pitching a complete game and helping himself on offense.

In addition to his strong effort on the mound, Lagasse hit lead-off and was instrumental in scoring Carillon’s first two runs. After drawing a walk in the first inning, Lagasse promptly stole second, advanced to third on a sacrifice fly, and finally scored on another sacrifice fly, giving the Sultans an early lead despite not registering a single hit.

After giving up a the lead in the fourth, Lagasse knocked in the tying run in the bottom of the fifth, setting the stage for a Carillon rally in the sixth. Mason Hooper’s double allowed Cody Wielgosh and Brady Papineau to come around and score.

Krentz said no message was needed to his squad after they fell behind.

“We knew how well we were swinging it all week,” he said.

“We had the at-bats. We just needed a guy on and we knew we could push him through.”

Cody Gunderson was a human highlight reel from the catcher position in the final. He threw out an attempted stolen base in the third inning, tagged out a runner at home in the fourth, and completed his half of a strike ‘em out throw ‘em out double play in the sixth.

“When (Gunderson) is behind the dish, anybody who runs on him doesn’t have a good chance of stealing a base,” Krentz said.

“He made them pay for that. If they were on first base, that was as far as they were gonna get.”

Heading into the top of the seventh up two runs Carillon looked well positioned to cruise to victory. But with Lagasse’s pitch count rising, and Winnipeg South able to put the tying run on first, Krentz admitted he got a little worried, but was still confident, noting Lagasse was going to stay in the game until he hit his 105 pitch limit.

“We have a great catcher, he hadn’t let any passed balls through, you got to trust the defense,” Krentz said.

By winning Manitoba, Carillon locks up a spot at 18U nationals in Fort McMurray, Alta.

“Don’t ask me much about it,” Krentz said, laughing.

“I have not put any thought into it. We’ll have to figure out some travel plans in the upcoming days.”

Nationals are set to begin Aug. 18.