The Black Sox and Orioles weren鈥檛 the only local area baseball teams taking part in the 2015 Twilite Maxi Provincial Tournament in Yorkton and Melville this past weekend.
The Parkland Padres, comprised of veteran players from Yorkton and the surrounding communities (Langenburg, Canora, Bredenbury, Churchbridge, Wadena, etc.) also competed in the tournament, posting a 2-3 record over five games that saw their 2015 Provincial tournament run come to an end in the 鈥楧鈥� Side final.
The Padres opened the tournament up with a 6-5 鈥楢鈥� Side loss to the Regina Ghosts in a game that Padres spokesman Jerome Hemauer believes would have been theirs had they had one more inning left in the game. 鈥淲e gave them a good start with six right off the bat there and then we fought our way back and had a good opportunity to actually win that game but in the end we came up short,鈥� said Hemauer, adding they had a chance to tie the game but could not find a way to push the run across the plate.
From there the Padres moved to the 鈥楤鈥� Side where they fell to the Assiniboia Aces 8-3. 鈥淚t鈥檚 always tough when you get out of the 鈥楢鈥� Side and I think our disappointment over losing the first game showed in the second one,鈥� offered Hemauer. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 play as well as we could and ended up losing our second game.鈥�
The second loss of the tournament meant the Padres dropped down to the 鈥楧鈥� Side bracket held in Melville. In their first 鈥楧鈥� Side game the Padres took on the host Melville Giants in a rain-shortened four inning affair that saw Parkland score four runs while holding the home side to just one.
The win propelled the Padres to the 鈥楧鈥� Side semi-final where they hooked up with the Estevan Drillers in a game that could only be described as a batter鈥檚 delight.
The Padres trailed by as much as eight runs at one point in the game, however they battled back and managed to win the game in walk off style 12-11 to send them to the 鈥楧鈥� Side final against the Macklin Lakers, where their luck finally ran out in the form of a 10-2 defeat.
But despite the lopsided loss in the 鈥楧鈥� Final, Hemauer believes that the entire weekend was great. 鈥淲e got a really close, tight-knit group of guys and we all get along really well,鈥� mentioned Hemauer. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 win, but we fought and battled. In a lot of the games we were down early and we fought and battled our way back into the games and it was a great weekend of baseball.鈥�
The Padres will now reset and prepare for the 2015 Twilite Masters Provincial tournament, where the best 43 and over teams in the province meet to decide who will be the 2015 champion.
Members of the Parkland Padres are as follows: Ewen Morrison, Jerome Hemauer, Chris Morrison, Darcy Blommaert, Bob Haas, Cam Louttit, Cam Metzler, Travis Mentanko, Lynton Evans, Francis Ostapovich, Doug Zawatsky, Irving Switzer, Barry Novak, Kevin Rawlick, Ries Mansuy, Mike Sarafincian, Clint Maduck, Kevin Krieger, Adam Wog, Chris Wizniak and Colin Holowka.
