Two members of the Yorkton Midget 'AA' Cardinals baseball team have only recently returned home from a lengthy spring baseball camp held in Arizona.
Caleb Bymak and Tyson Black, both of Yorkton, were two of just 30 Saskatchewan baseball players chosen to take part in the Saskatchewan Baseball camp in Arizona from April 20-29.
The camp, which was held specifically so Saskatchewan scouts can gauge the skill level of each player before the Canada Cup later this year, was the first such camp that Bymak attended, and, while he was nervous at first, the young baseball star admitted that he enjoyed the experience. "It was definitely a good experience," offered Bymak."Just to go and play ball down there and have some fun with the guys was great. At the same time I got some good experience playing and training at a higher level.
"It was lots of fun and I got a lot of good things out of it."
And while Bymak didn't quite know what to expect at the camp, fellow midget Cardinal player Tyson Black said he had an idea as to what the camp might entail, simply due to his previous experience at an Arizona camp earlier this year. "I kind of had an idea going in," offered the midget Cardinals pitcher. "Although we had a little more training this time. I thought it was a better experience because of the more training and knowledge we got."
Black then mentioned that he also seen a little bit more action during games this time around, what with Team Saskatchewan playing six games against local Arizona men's league teams. "This time I got 6.2 innings on the mound," mentioned Black, before saying that he also got to play a "couple of innings and short and a couple at third base" which gave him invaluable real game experience before the 2014 midget season begins.
As for the skill level of the local Arizona men's teams, Bymak said that he was taken aback by the actual talent. "A couple of the teams were really good," offered a smirking Bymak. "They had some guys that played high level ball like college and minor pro. It was definitely some good competition that we got to test ourselves against."
Both players will now get back to indoor training sessions at the Gloria Hayden Centre in preparation for the 2014 midget 'AA' season, which will get underway this upcoming weekend when the Yorkton midget 'AA' Cardinals travel first to Â鶹´«Ã½AVey for a date with the Eagles on Saturday and noon before taking on the Lumsden Cubs at 4:00p.m. that same Saturday.
