Manitoba finished strong, but because of three losses to kick off the tournament they placed 7th overall at the Canadian Junior Baseball National Championships this past weekend in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Manitoba didn't get off to the start they had envisioned, getting outscored 35-10 in their opening three games. After losing to Dartmouth, Quebec and B.C., Manitoba's fortunes turned in their next two games, defeating Newfoundland & Labrador 6-1 and New Brunswick 7-1.
"All in all the guys played well," said Manitoba's Manager Ken Krentz. "But at this kind of national tournament everything needs to be perfect to make the medal round and we fell short."
The Sultans increased their presence on the national level this year, adding five players and two coaches compared to the two representatives they sent a year ago. Jamieson Krentz, Jesse Goertzen, Orrin Hogue, Ethan Plante and Nathan Christiuk were amongst the best 18 players picked from the province.
Along with the five players, coaches Ken Krentz and Ken Prociw were tasked with the role of crafting the lineups game-to-game. "It was a treat, we had 18 quality ball players," Krentz said. "Making the line-ups was always a difficulty and picking who pitches against which team was always a puzzle."
Despite their 7th place finish, Krentz says there were many good moments and that included their first win over NewFoundland & Labrador. "We went out and had a good first inning. We dominated them, and it was good to see that, yeah we do have a good team."
Some of the highlights on the field for the Sultans' players were Jesse Goertzen's seven strikeout, three hit, shutout performance against Newfoundland & Labrador and then Nathan Christiuk's 4-for-4 outing at the plate in their seventh place game, which helped him attain the second best batting-average (.500) in the tournament.
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