SPORTS FLASHBACK 1984: Saskatchewan snatches gold from Tiger Paws at Westerns

The Saskatchewan Waldheim Valley Merchants defeated the Steinbach KK Penner Tiger Paws twice in the finals to win the 1984 Western Canadian Senior ‘B’ Men’s Fastball title in Edmonton.

The Tiger Paws finished round-robin play tied with Saskatchewan with identical four wins and two losses records.

A Tiger Paws win over British Columbia in the playoff round and a 1-0 Saskatchewan loss to the Manitoba representative meant the Merchants would have to beat the Steinbach team twice for the championship.

And beat them they did. The first game of the A-B final was a 3-0 shutout for Bryan Wiebe and his Saskatchewan squad, and he followed that with another brilliant pitching performance to give the Merchants a 3-2 victory in the deciding game.

Saskatchewan parlayed two hits into three runs in the third inning of the first game, when the Tiger Paws committed three errors. Those were the only two hits Banman gave up on the way to the loss.

But that pair of hits was one more than the single by Cornie Martens that Wiebe gave up on the way to the 3-0 win.

In the second game, KK’s was again forced to come from behind, when Saskatchewan hit three singles in a row for a one-run lead in the second inning.

The Tiger Paws had a great opportunity to take the lead themselves in the sixth inning, when Fran Giesbrecht evened the score on a passed ball and KK’s loaded the bases with one out.

Wiebe chalked up his seventh and eighth strikeouts of the game to get out of the inning. Saskatchewan scored two runs in the top of the seventh, after Banman came in to relieve Brian Pallister.

Steinbach got one back in their half of the seventh, but a line shot to first base ended the game and changed the Tiger Paws gold medal to silver.

After blanking BC 2-0 Sunday night to assure themselves of a medal, the Tiger Paws played their best defensive ball of the tournament Saturday morning, when they used a single first inning run to drop Saskatchewan to the ‘B’ side of the competition.

In the bottom of the first inning, Fran Giesbrecht greeted Bryan Wiebe with a single and scored on Randy Dutiaume’s double. Those were the only two hits the Tiger Paws had in the game.

Brian Pallister gave up four hits in the game, while striking out four, stranding five Saskatchewan baserunners.

The win gave the Tiger Paws the opportunity to win the gold medal with one more victory but the Merchants battled back on the ‘B’ side and won the A-B final 3-0 and 3-2.

Randy Dutiaume’s play in the round-robin portion of the championships earned him a spot on the all-star team as an outfielder. Adding Pallister and catcher Dutiaume to the roster for the Western Canadians paid big dividends for the Steinbach team.

During the championships, Dutiaume caught, played first base and the outfield. Pallister also took a turn at first base between pitching assignments.

In one of those pitching assignments, Pallister struck out 11 on the way to an impressive 7-3 win over a team from Prince George, British Columbia. In that game, Dutiaume provided much of the offence, hitting two homers and driving in five runs.