Sabres top seed at baseball provincials
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This article was published 29/05/2018 (2152 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The SRSS Sabres are the top ranked team at the 12-team Provincial High School Baseball Championships, which gets underway Thursday, being hosted at Neepawa and Plumas.
SRSS will face 12th-ranked Helen Betty Osborne from Norway House at 9:00 Thursday at Neepawa and then will complete their brief two-game round robin against the sixth ranked Westwood Warriors at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, also at Neepawa.
Rounding out the top four seeds is second ranked W.C. Miller from Altona, third ranked Portage Collegiate and then fourth ranked Boissevain.
The first and second place teams in each of the four pools qualify for the quarter-finals. The championship game will be played Saturday at 4:00 p.m. at Plumas.
The Sabres won the Zone 13 title last week, defeating last year’s zone champs, the Green Valley Pirates, twice in the A-B final to claim the crown.
Green Valley earlier won the A-side final, edging the Sabres 5-4. The Sabres subsequently dropped back to the B-side, where they beat Edward Schreyer 16-3 in the B-final.
The Sabres beat the Pirates with a 20-7 victory in the first game of the A-B final, then claimed the zone title with a 9-6 triumph in game two.
Asked if he was surprised at the Sabres’ number one ranking going into provincials, Sabres’ head coach Clint Brandt said, “At the start of the season it probably would have been a surprise, but now after seeing these guys perform, they have earned it.”
Brandt says in 17 games this season, the Sabres were 14-3 overall, which included winning the tournament at Altona, where they beat second-ranked W.C. Miller in the semis and then topped third-ranked Portage in the tournament final.
Brandt says the key to their success so far this season, “has been our depth, and we are strong defensively at every position.”
Meanwhile, the SRSS girls are also competing at provincials this weekend as they are the sixth ranked team at the Provincial High School Fastpitch Championships at Winkler.
The Sabres will take on 11th ranked Beliveau in their opening game of the tournament Friday at 11:00 a.m. They will then complete their two-game round robin vs. third ranked Boissevain Friday at 1:00 p.m.
All 12 teams make the playoffs, with each of the four pool winners advancing straight to the quarter-finals.
The championship game will be played Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
SRSS won the Zone 13 title last week, winning five straight games at the zone tournament, defeating Green Valley 15-12 in the semis and then blanked Landmark 7-0 in the final.