| Game 33: Alberta 7 Saskatchewan 2 |
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SEAN ROONEY This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Maybe it didn’t matter in the standings, but Team Alberta made sure to finish this Canada Cup out the right way on home soil. Alberta scored six runs in the first two innings and coasted to a 7-2 win over Saskatchewan Sunday to finish the tournament 5-2, the province’s best record at the under-17 championships this decade. “This is the toughest group I’ve coached,” said Alberta coach Harold Northcott, who’s been with the team since the early ‘90s. “They don’t quit. “We always have that good rivalry, there’s some pride there for Western Canada, make sure we’ve got the best of the Prairies.” No question about that notion this time around. Saskatchewan, which will be the host team next year when Kindersley gets the Canada Cup, finished this year’s event 1-6 out of the tough A pool. Manitoba was 3-3, a record Alberta’s finished with at five of the last seven Canada Cups. After a disappointing 0-6 record in 2006, Northcott’s bunch regroupd with three wins last year in Québec and had a realistic shot at a medal before errors got the best of them in Saturday’s quarter-final loss. Jordon Wong started for the home side and got out of a bases-loaded jam thanks to a stellar grab by centre-fielder Adam Nelubowich and two clutch strikeouts. From there he was lights-out, striking out six and letting up just one hit in four innings. “At that point I was a bit nervous, but I got through it, a great catch by our centrefielder and I felt better after that,” said Wong, a Calgary native who didn’t surrender a run in two outings in this year’s tournament. “I just wanted to prove from my first start to here that I could compete at this level.” Saskatchewan starter Ryan Brezinski didn’t have the same luck, getting rocked for three straight hits in a five-run second inning highlighted by a two-RBI double from Medicine Hat’s Mitch Frey, who was the first batter for relief pitcher Landon Adelman. Frey added another RBI single in the fifth, completing an impressive tournament at the dish. It was clear Saskatchewan coach Roger Anholt would have liked that kind of performance from one of his batters. “Come right down to it we did not get enough hits at the right time and we didn’t score enough runs,” said Anholt, whose team scored just 12 runs in its seven games. “That was our biggest dilemma all tournament. You’re not going to beat many teams (with that few runs).” One Saskatchewan batter who did swing a hot stick Sunday was catcher-outfielder Chris Untereiner. The Regina product hit the ball that forced Nelubowich to make a tough catch and later smashed an RBI double to right centre-field. Untereiner thought his team didn’t show the same emotion they did in the previous day’s 3-0 loss to British Columbia that relegated them to the fifth-place game Sunday. “A couple hits here and there and we would have been right in there,” said Untereiner. “The tough loss against B.C. brought us down, but these guys are our rivals and we should have come out as hard as we came out against B.C.” |
