The Barrhead Orioles will host the Mosquito ‘AA’ Provincial Championships this Friday to Sunday, Aug. 3-6.
“These guys are pretty excited (to host provincials),” said Barrhead Minor Ball registrar Angela Kramm, whose son plays on the team.
The Barrhead squad plays within Tier II of Baseball Alberta’s Mosquito ‘AA’ division. Kramm noted they started out in Tier I but were bumped into Tier II.
Nonethless, the Barrhead Orioles are one of the top 10 Mosquito ‘AA’ teams in all of Alberta, she said.
While half of the team hails from Barrhead, the other half come from Westlock. Kramm said this is because Westlock didn’t field a competitive Mosquito team this year, so most players came over toe Barrhead.
So far this year, their record has been 11-7. Kramm noted their tier includes some very strong southern teams that have given Barrhead a challenge this year.
As for how the team will do at provincials, “I definitely think we will be able to contend,” she said.
One interesting complication of the provincial championships is that every player is limited to throwing a maximum of 75 pitches.
Depending on how a game goes, one of their “pitchers” can throw their maximum number of pitches within just a few innings. This means everyone needs to pitch just to get through provincials.
Kramm said they do have two or three skilled pitchers, but this poses a challenge: you don’t want to waste your best pitchers, but if you don’t qualify for the playoff rounds, then you’ve basically wasted them.
“It makes things a little more exciting,” she said.
The weekend will kick off on Friday with opening ceremonies around 5 p.m. on Diamond 4 over by the Barrhead Agrena. For the remainder of the weekend, games will be held on both Diamond 1 and Diamond 4.
No matter how the weekend turns out, Kramm said they have a great group of kids and a great group of parents.
She added the Town of Barrhead has been really great this year assisting with diamond maintenance.
