A trio of Swift Current Minor Baseball standouts helped their province bring home medals from the Baseball Canada national championships.
Both Riley Bowers and Rylan Hildebrand helped Saskatchewan win silver at the 2017 DQ 13U National Championships in Repentigny, Quebec.
Saskatchewan opened the tournament with an 18-8 loss to Quebec on Thursday. Bowers pitched one relief inning and also picked up a run batted in when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth inning.
Team Sask defeated Whitby, ON 6-4 on Friday. Hildebrand got the start at first and hit seventh in the order, while Bowers had a pinch-hit appearance.
They also defeated British Columbia 12-8 when Bowers had two runs batted in.
Bowers and Hildebrand helped Team Sask clinch a spot in the semi-final with a 10-5 win over PEI to place second in the round robin at 3-1. Bowers doubled and pitched the final inning to close out the win. Hildebrand was two-for-two with a double, a walk, and scored twice.
Saskatchewan advanced past Manitoba 7-6 in the semi-final Sunday. Bowers walked and scored during a two-run fifth inning.
Saskatchewan took on North York, ON in the gold medal game, but were held to three hits in an 8-0 loss.
Brody Alexandre also won bronze with Team Saskatchewan at the 15U Ray Carter Cup in Summerside, PEI.
Saskatchewan opened the tournament on Thursday with a 5-0 win over Manitoba. Alexandre played third base and hit cleanup but was unable to reach base.
Alexandre singled, doubled, tripled, scored twice, and picked up four runs batted in for Team Sask in a 13-6 extra innings win over Nova Scotia Friday morning.
Alexandre took the mound for the first time during a 10-7 win over Alberta as Team Saskatchewan improved to 3-0 at Nationals. Alexandre allowed eight hits, three walks, and six runs as two errors led to five unearned runs. He faced 23 batters and struck out six while throwing 53 of his 89 pitches for strikes for a 1.75 earned run average.
Saskatchewan lost their final round robin game 11-10 to Newfoundland on Saturday morning.
Saskatchewan lost 11-9 to Quebec in the semi-final Sunday. They were leading 7-6 before a lengthy rain delay. Quebec scored four runs in the first inning after the game resumed to end Saskatchewan’s gold medal hopes. Alexandre hit a solo home run to open the scoring for Team Sask in the second inning and also walked and stole a base.
They faced Ontario for bronze Sunday evening and doubled them up 8-4 to win bronze. Alexandre was hit by a pitch, had two singles and two runs batted in to finish the tournament with three runs, six hits, seven RBI, two stolen bases, and a .261 average.
A total of five Swift Current athletes took part in four different national championships this season and all came home with top-four finishes. Logan Fritzke won gold at the Canada Summer Games at the 18U tournament. Hildebrand and Bowers won 13U silver and Alexandre won 15U bronze. Tanner Fritzke had helped Saskatchewan to a fourth-place finish at 21U Nationals one week earlier.
