OLDS — The Olds Spitfires 13U AA Black team capped off their incredible season by capturing the Baseball Alberta Tier 1 AA provincial championship this past weekend in Leduc and will now represent Alberta at the Western Canadian Minor AA Championships Aug. 15-17 in St. Albert.
On the heels of a very successful season, the Spitfires went into the weekend as the #1 seed and a target on their back.
They kicked off the weekend with a back-and-forth game against a hard-hitting Grande Prairie Reds team that saw the Spitfires trail 5-0 early. They chipped away and eventually went on to win 10-9, with Grande Prairie leaving the tying run on third base. Elias Taylor was the first game's most valuable player (MVP).
In their second round-robin game, the Spitfires came away with a decisive 13-1 victory against the host Black Gold 47s team on the backs of an incredible complete game, two-hit pitching performance by game MVP Jameson Clattenburg.
Their final round-robin game was an 11-6 victory over the Sylvan Lake Mariners, which helped secure the Spitfires’ spot in the semi-finals on Sunday. Game MVP Kayden Juneau hit his third home run of the tournament to help secure the win.
The semifinal game saw the Spitfires behind 4-0 before ever recording an out when reliever and eventual game MVP Isaac Foat came into the game and pitched an absolute gem.
Foat went six scoreless innings, giving up three hits and recording 11 strikeouts to give the Spitfires offence a chance to close the gap.
Trailing 4-2 entering the bottom of the fifth inning, the Spitfires capitalized on clutch hits by Quinn Brown and Michael Atkinson to extend the inning long enough for Juneau to hit a grand slam (his fourth home run of the tournament) to take the lead 10-4 in a game they would go on to win 13-4.
The provincial final saw a rematch between the Spitfires and the Grande Prairie Reds.
Once again, the Spitfires found themselves behind early, as they trailed 3-1.
With resiliency being the hallmark of the team, they once again found a way to chip away at the lead, scoring runs in the third and fourth innings to take a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning.
After pushing the lead to 10-3 with a few walks and timely hits, the bases were loaded when Jameson Clattenburg delivered the knockout hit, clearing the bases to capture a 13-3 mercy win and provincial championship for the Olds Spitfires.
The game MVP was awarded to Eli Robertson who kept a dangerous Grande Prairie team to three runs across five innings.
Juneau once again homered in the victory, pushing his total to five in the tournament on his way to being awarded tournament MVP.
"The boys were so resilient all weekend and never stopped believing in each other and their ability to overcome various early deficits,” Olds Minor Baseball president Jeff Clattenburg says.
They had incredible pitching performances, elite defence, and timely hitting to help capture the provincial championship and earn a spot at the Western Canadian Championships.
Jeff Clattenburg is president of the Olds Minor Baseball Association
