The defending champions from last year the Estevan Tap House Wolves beat the Oxbow Chief’s 3-1 in the final game of this year’s Jack Harbourne Memorial Tournament on July 29. The Chiefs were the top team in the regular season with a 17-1-0 record. With great weather for baseball, after a two pool round robin, four teams were on top including Saskota’s own Carlyle Cardinals, Redvers A’s, the Chiefs, and the Tower Wolves. The Wolves knocked out the A’s 3-1 in one of the two semi-final games while the Chiefs battled the Cardinals to a 5-3 victory. In other news, it was announced that the Cardinals are going to be inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame (Team Category) on Saturday, August 18 for their accomplishments both in the league and on a provincial level.
“It was really nice to win two years in a row. It really reaffirms that we feel like the best team in the league,” said Jolan Lingelbach, the player acting as team captain of the Tower Wolves. “We knew this year it was going to be a three-horse-race between us, Carlyle, and Oxbow battling it out. Last year when we beat the Cardinals in the semi finals, it felt really special, they had been the top-dog. Their winning streak was for 6 or 7 years in a row. Being the ones to finally break there run last year was great.”
The Wolves new coach Tom Copeland, president of the Saskota midget league, had approached the team and offered them help with their defense training, thinking the talented team could win a lot of games with some basic fine tuning. “It was a unanimous yes right away,” said Lingelbach. The Wolves trained once a week throughout the year, and twice a week in the month leading up to the Saskota tournament.
“There are numerous guys (on the team) who have played in college baseball or had college offers,” said Lingelbach. “Like Dylan LaFrance, we have a lot of good player on our team.” Players return from college in the summer and join back up with the Wolves for the Saskota play-off.
“We love to win, and think we have the skill to do so. We have a lot of fun out there, but we know when to put our heads down, and work hard, so we can get to the finals,” said Lingelbach.
The Wolves are hosting the provincial tournament August 10- 12 in Estevan this year. Lingelbach and his teammates are excited to have the games played on home turf, and hope to draw a big crowd of fans and supporters out the game to watch. “It’s always better with our fans at the game, come and watch some really good baseball. There are a lot of local teams with talented players,” said Lingelbach.
