Sultans’ season comes to an end

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This article was published 26/07/2017 (2458 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Carillon Sultans put up a tremendous fight against the defending champion Elmwood Giants, but in the end fell just short in the Manitoba Junior Baseball League semi-finals.

Wednesday night in Steinbach, with another large crowd of several hundred spectators on hand, the Giants scored an 11-4 come from behind victory over the Sultans to win the series 3-1.

The Sultans led all four games, including last night’s tilt at home, but could hold on to win only one of them.

In last night’s game four, the Sultans burst into a 4-1 lead with three, fourth inning runs, but the Giants tied it with three runs in the fifth and then the tiring Carillon pitching staff just ran out of steam as the Giants exploded for seven runs in the seventh to take the game 11-4.

The Giants will now take on the pennant-winning St. James A’s in the MJBL finals. The A’s defeated the Pembina Valley Orioles in four games in the other semi-final series.

Nik Kauenhofen, an all-round standout for the Sultans both on the mound and at the plate was one of the leading players in the MJBL this season. He says although it was frustrating to hold the lead throughout the series, only to lose in the end, “we probably lost to a better team. It came down to mental toughness, we just couldn’t close out those games.”

Kauenhofen, who has one more year left in junior baseball next season with the Sultans, has been picked up by both the St. James A’s for the Western Championships in Brandon next month as well as for nationals later in the month at Gatineau, Quebec, by the Giants. As MJBL champions last year, the Giants are forming a team that will compete in this year’s national championships.

Elmwood finished second in the regular season standings with a 17-7 record, while the Sultans, who swept the Interlake Blue Jays, two straight in the quarters, were fourth at 12-12.

But this semi-final series between the defending champion Giants and the Sultans was as tight as could be as the first three games of the semis were all determined by one run.

The Sultans, as it were, could have just as easily won the first two games of the series as the Giants rallied from behind in games one and two to win by scores of 2-1 and 9-8 before the Sultans took game three by a 5-4 count to bring this series back to Steinbach for game four last night.