La Broquerie A's - 2017 Western Canada Bantam AA Baseball Champions
Back Row: assistant coach Ray Grimard, Mason Hartung, Drayden Kurbatoff, Meech Nadeau, Keyan Grimard, Davis Fenske, Dawson Tanner, Justin Gudmundson, Eric Mateychuk, assistant coach Mitch Tetrault & head coach Mitch Nadeau
Front Row: Zac Tetrault, Dustin Broesky, Carson Tufford, Darius Morrow & Gabe Ross

 

It's just over 2,000 kilometers from La Broquerie to Kamloops.

The La Broquerie A's made that trip to British Columbia last week and are returning home as 2017 Western Canada Bantam AA Baseball champions.

"I knew with this group of kids, with their dedication to the sport of baseball and how they all meshed together, I knew this year we had something special going on," said A's coach Mitch Nadeau during a phone interview Monday morning as his ballclub started its journey back to Manitoba from the Okanagan. "It's just a great feeling to be recognized as champions of Western Canada. These guys just battled the whole way to do this."

The provincial champions endured the car ride from southeastern Manitoba through Saskatchewan and Alberta and then got adjusted to a two-hour time change when they crossed the B.C. border.

"We had a light practice Thursday evening just to get our legs going and I was actually really, really surprised how the kids coped through all this," said Nadeau. "Even our first game on Friday morning at 8 a.m. PDT, from the first pitch to the last pitch, we never skipped a beat. It was quite impressive."

The A's opened the Westerns with a pair of wins on day one.

La Broquerie defeated the Tri City Indians 5-2 and the Provost Pilots 11-7.

"That was the key point in our pre-game speech," Nadeau said. "Lets not look to Sunday but let's look to this first game and go inning-by-inning and pitch-by-pitch. You can only control what's going on at the moment. I reminded the kids that this is a big stage but they're still kids the same age. We just took it pitch-by-pitch and rolled from there."

The A's bounced the Lloydminster Twins 12-1 on Saturday and then lost their only game of the weekend on Sunday morning 2-1 to the Burnaby Braves.

That game featured a pitchers duel between Carson Hemingway of the Braves and Stonewall's Davis Fenske who La Broquerie added to its roster for the Westerns.

"We were told we were facing one of the top pitchers in B.C. and he was a good thrower," said Nadeau. "He was throwing hard and he had a good curve and a good changeup which kept us off balance. I was quite impressed how we battled against him. It just so happened it created a three-way tie with our loss but because of the amount of runs we gave up, we still got first place. Hats off to our pitcher also. It was incredible how he kept a good hitting team off balance."

The A's captured the Western Canada championship as they scored five runs in the fourth inning and shutout Tri City 7-0 in the final.

Dawson Tanner went the distance allowing just three hits and struck out eight.

"They could not generate anything off Dawson," said Nadeau. "He kept mixing it up. It was quite impressive. It was probably the best game that I had ever seen him pitch and he's pitched a lot of good games, but the way he handled this lineup from top to bottom - it was impressive. They had no clue what was coming. From his fastball to his curveball to changing the speed of his windup. Our defense played amazing behind him too. There were a lot of routine plays. I knew with Dawson on the mound all we had to do was generate a few runs and I was pretty positive that would be enough for the win and it was."

"We have quite an amazing group of kids here," added Nadeau. "Throughout all these games, it wasn't just one player carrying the whole team. From the first batter to the ninth batter, everybody chipped in one way or another. Timely hits from our number eight hitter to our number nine hitter doing a sacrifice bunt that ends up into a double. Our guys were sharp and capitalized on miscues. It was total group effort. Our pitching was solid. Dawson Tanner was our best pitcher and we didn't use him until the final. Kudo's to all those other players. We've got something special going on and hopefully it's going to continue for a few more years here."

Game MVP honours from the weekend went to Mason Hartung, Meech Nadeau, Justin Gudmundson, Davis Fenske and Dawson Tanner.


The La Broquerie A's baseball family at the Westerns in Kamloops (Photo credit: Joel Hartung)