The AAA Pembina Hills 18U baseball team took home the WABA championship this past week. The roster was made up of players from Portage, Carberry, Glenboro, and a few other towns in the area. Head coach Ryan Borody describes their play throughout the season.

“It was kind of a crazy year but once we got going baseball is baseball,” says Borody. “We had a really good tournament, we were swinging the bats really well and our pitching was exceptional. Everything came together and we had a good run.”

Borody says they won their quarter-final matchup convincingly(11-1 over Interlake) and then had an extremely high scoring affair in the semi-finals, winning 23-13(over St. James). That then brought Pembina Hills to the finals against the only other rural team in the league Carillon. Borody notes they pulled off something that’s never been done before.

“This is the first time a rural team has ever won the 18U WABA league,” Borody explains. “It’s not very often that rural teams participate in the league but nobody has even won that from outside the city. So, it’s a good feeling for the boys. Also, last year our Pembina Hills 18U team ended up winning Provincials, so this is kind of an unofficial back-to-back Provincial win.”

He says the final game against Carillon was a very weird one, where they came on top 5-2 but all seven runs were scored in the third inning. Borody adds it was a fitting way to cap off what was a very weird, but great, season.