Members of the Prince Albert Royals. (Derek Craddock/paNOW Staff)

By Jaryn Vecchio

Local Tournament

‘We’re playing baseball’: 13U AA Western Baseball Championships underway in P.A. after previously being cancelled

Sep 2, 2023 | 9:28 AM

The 13U AA Western Canadian Baseball Championships are officially underway in Prince Albert.

The city wasn’t supposed to host the event as it was originally planned for Kelowna, however, it was cancelled due to the ongoing wildfire situation around the B.C. community.

The Prince Albert Royals were five innings into their first game when it was called off due to smoke.

Head Coach Jason Van Otterloo told paNOW it doesn’t matter now that they’re the host team, they’re just happy to be playing.

“After experiencing Kelowna… we played some ball, it was fun. Didn’t matter what the scores were, we’re playing baseball,” he said enthusiastically.

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The Championships are a bit different from what was supposed to happen in Kelowna. Only four teams are taking part as two declined to take part.

Taking on the Royals are the Consort Cubs (Alberta), Brandon Marlins (Manitoba), and North East Expos (Saskatchewan 2) who are replacing Team British Columbia.

The hosts got off to a great start as they beat the Cubs 15-5.

“Hitting is always the questionable thing when you’ve been off for a couple of weeks and for our boys, the hitting showed up in droves. We scored runs in every inning and that’s so nice to do.”

Prince Albert Royals hitter. (Derek Craddock/paNOW Staff)

They’re set to take on the Marlins on Saturday.

Meanwhile, an opening ceremony was held after each team had played their first games.

The Royals also decided to have a home run derby afterward to keep their hitting top-notch.

-With files from Derek Craddock

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow