NORTH BATTLEFORD - The Estevan 18U AA Brewers are the Baseball Sask provincial Tier 1 champions.
The Brewers defeated the host North Battleford Beavers 7-4 Sunday afternoon to win provincials and cap a season in which they were the top team in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League almost from the outset.
Estevan scored three times in the second inning and twice in the fourth to take a 5-0 lead over the Beavers. North Battleford rallied with four in the fifth to pull within one, but Estevan put the game away with two in the sixth.
Jacob Mayer went 3-for-4 at the plate for Estevan. Jayden Kuchinka, Axton Martin and Sutter Baily each drove in two runs.
Baily allowed 11 hits and four runs – none of them earned – in six innings for the Brewers. Mathias Fornwald pitched one inning of relief for the Brewers to get the save.
Coach Nick Mayer said he and the players weren't nervous in the final innings when the Beavers pulled to within one; rather, he said it was a "super fun" game to be in.
Estevan entered the tournament as the top seed on account of their 24-4 record in Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League play in the regular season. The Brewers then went 5-0 at provincials, starting with a 15-5, six-inning win over the Regina Blue Jays on Friday. Jayden Kuchinka went 4-for-5 for Estevan, scoring three times and having four runs batted in (RBI). One of his hits was a home run.
Estevan then defeated the Regina White Sox 7-6 and the Assiniboia Aces 13-3 on Saturday to finish the round robin at 3-0.
Estevan had a 5-3 lead entering the bottom of the sixth inning against the White Sox, who scored scored thrice to lead 6-5, but the Brewers responded with two of their own in the seventh. Fornwald had three hits and scored three times for Estevan, and Kuchinka hit a home run.
Lincoln Spencer allowed five hits and six runs (two earned) over 5 2/3 innings for Estevan while striking out six.
Kuchinka homered for the third straight game against Assiniboia, while Fornwald had four hits, three runs and two RBIs. Tayson Dietze added three RBIs and scored twice.
Blake Andrist picked up the win on the mound for Estevan, giving up three runs in four innings.
In the semifinal, Fornwald had two hits and two RBIs, and Jacob Mayer pitched 5 1/3 innings of shutout ball, giving up two hits and striking out eight.
"We did everything well," said coach Mayer. "We always played great defence, we got great pitching from our guys and we had a lot of timely hits all weekend long."
The provincial title comes after numerous close calls for the U18 AA Brewers. They lost the provincial final in 2021 and made it to the semifinal last year. They also advanced to the semifinal of the Western Canada Baseball Championships as the host team in 2022.
"They've been working hard for a long time, and I've coached some of them a fair bit over the years, and I'm super proud of them that they continue to show up, work hard and they really enjoy the game," said Mayer.
The Brewers have five third-year players who bring a wealth of experience to the game, said Mayer, making it easier to coach them.
Right from the start of the season, Mayer believed they had a team that could win a provincial title. They lost a couple of games in North Battleford early in the season, but lost only two more from there. They are riding a 14-game winning streak.
"These guys just love, love baseball, and they just enjoy it. They enjoy the grind of working hard, and they're always at practice. They're always smiling. They're just a great, great bunch of guys," said Mayer.
The Brewers will represent Saskatchewan at Western Canadians in Winnipeg from Aug. 15-18.
Mayer said they're looking at adding a couple of players for the tournament, but if those don't materialize, he feels great about the current team.
"Heading into a tournament like that, it's always good if you can grab some help, but it's still up in the air a little bit," said Mayer.
