SRSS Sabres continue Zone 13 baseball dominance

There will come a year the Steinbach Regional Sabres baseball team are felled at the Zone 13 championships, but 2025 wasn’t it.

The Sabres cruised to their fourth consecutive undefeated run at zones, defeating St Joachim 5-1 in the final. The championship game was the only non-mercy rule win for the Sabres at the tournament, hosted in Mitchell May 20/21.

Jackson Penner pitched a complete game for the Sabres in the finals to power the team to victory. High school baseball took two years off during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the grade 12 players on the team, they’ve never lost a Zone 13 tournament game in their high school career.

“Being a school of our size, that’s a big part of it, but it also speaks to the consistency of those players,” head coach Clinton Brandt said.

It’s no surprise Steinbach Regional dominates the zone. With all classes of high schools playing for just one championship in baseball, the school’s large size and the region’s explosion of quality minor baseball players means the Sabres should normally be the favourite to win the division.

Most of the players on the Sabres roster have AAA minor baseball experience with the Carillon Sultans, and nine SRSS players are on AAA rosters this season.

“I don’t view it as pressure, it’s more of a standard and expectation,” Brandt said when asked how the team deals with being the favourites to win the zone.

“I’m confident in our players and they know we’re confident in them. It’s just a matter of going out there and executing.”

There are no other AAAA classified schools in the region, with the Winnipeg-based Garden City Gophers the only other AAAA school who even qualified for baseball provincials. Steinbach took down the Gophers twice in exhibition play this season. The Sabres only loss of the season came at a Altona-hosted tournament, when they fell to Winkler-based Garden Valley Collegiate, a AAA school.

No team from the region was able to nab a wild-card spot. Decisions on who gets wild-card spots at provincials and how to seed the tournament are challenging for the Manitoba High School Athletic Association, as there are few chances for teams to play against other zones during the short high school baseball season.

The Sabres are the second seed at provincials, meaning they have the advantage of playing their two pool play games on Thursday.

Any abbreviated baseball tournament puts massive pressure on pitching staffs, as throwing restrictions mean a team will need to be deep on the mound to win.

“I think our top guys match up with anyone else’s top guys,” Brandt said when asked to evaluate the Sabres’ rotation.

“I don’t feel there’s going to be any opponent where there will be a significant edge in pitching over us. What’s going to be important is our depth arms pitch well, especially early in the tournament to give us a chance to save our top arms for later if we can.”

While success at zones has come in droves, victory at provincials has been a lot tougher, with the Sabres coming up short in the past few years.

“There are some good teams there that will definitely be tough to beat, but I like our group too,” Brandt said.

“We’ve got a group of grade 12s who’ve had some heartbreak over the years and they’re pretty motivated to try and win it in their last chance.”

No Sabres team has won a provincial baseball championship.

Organizing a trip to provincials this year was easier for Brandt, as they are hosted in Stonewall this year, meaning the school does not need to figure out overnight accommodations.

Steinbach is in a pool with hosts Stonewall and a Birtle/Hamiota/Rossburn/Shoal Lake co-op team.

The SRSS baseball team won’t be the only one in action this weekend at a provincial championship, as the school’s boys soccer team, defeating Winkler’s Northlands Parkway Collegiate 4-1 in a qualifying match May 21.

The AAAA soccer provincials are a single-elimination, eight-team tournament, which is hosted by St Boniface at Buhler Recreation Park this year. Steinbach takes on the University of Winnipeg Collegiate team in their quarterfinal match.

The soccer team is also the second seed at provincials.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better draw,” head coach Steve Rebizant said.

“I feel we’ve seen all the teams and have a good idea of what we need to do to be successful in the tournament. Our destiny is in our hands — and I believer our boys can do it.”

The SRSS girls lost to Northlands 1-0 in their qualifying match.