18U AAA Sultans hit the diamond

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/06/2020 (1842 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the massive disruption that all sports have seen this summer, baseball is doing the best they can as one of the first sports out of the gate this summer, while still being mindful of all the COVID-19 restrictions.

Here in the Carillon Minor Baseball Association (CMBA), teams from communities across the region are preparing to start their shortened season by the end of the month. The Carillon Junior Sultans are currently in a series of training sessions getting ready to open their MJBL season on June 28.

Another of Carillon’s elite teams, the 18U AAA Sultans, is also currently holding tryouts and on field workouts in preparation for the coming campaign in July and August.

All of this has a different feel to it as Baseball Manitoba and Baseball Canada have called off all provincial and national championship events this year.

The 18U AAA regional team is the only high performance team the CMBA will be running this season due to all the changes in the baseball season this year. The league hopes to run all three high performance teams next year, adding in the 15U AAA and 13U AAA programs.

Meanwhile, the 18U squad has been working out at scheduled practices at La Broquerie under head coach Jamieson Krentz along with Clint Brandt and Bryan Gerbrandt.

At a hot and muggy workout on Tuesday night, 20 players were on hand as tryouts continue for the squad. Krentz says they will eventually pare those numbers down to about 14 players as the team this year will compete in a league run by the Winnipeg AAA Baseball Association (WABA).

That schedule has not yet been finalized although Krentz says they hope to play most of their home games in Steinbach (as do the Carillon Junior Sultans) and then hold practices in some of the neighbouring communities.

There will be eight teams in the league. Joining the Carillon Sultans will be Elmwood, Winnipeg South, Pembina Hills, North Winnipeg, Bonivital, Interlake and St. James.

Krentz says for the first time they will be playing in the WABA league playoffs this year. In the past the Carillon teams would play in regional qualifiers and then the provincial championships, but of course those are not being held this year.

This league is a highly competitive league but Krentz is confident that the Sultans will be competitive themselves, “I’m hoping we can be above .500. We have an athletic team and defensively we should be very strong this year.”