Central Alberta's Premier AA Baseball League

The Rocky Red Dogs swept the Innisfail Indians to capture the 2011 PBL Championship on August 19th.

Pivitoal game 2 betweeen the Dags (Who lead the best of 3 series 1 game to non) and Indians came down to the top of the 7th inning. Indians led the game 3-1 until the Red Dogs unloaded for 7 runs in the top of the 7th. The Dogs then shut the Indians down in the bottom of the 7th winning 8 to 3. King and Kirkham both pitched all 7 innings.

Congratulations to the Rocky Red Dogs, their fans, and sponsors!

After a change in venues to Great Chief Park #2 and a change in times to 2PM and 5PM, the Parkland Baseball League finished up their Championship tournament on Sunday.

In the 2PM game, Rocky Red Dogs defeated the Lacombe Dodgers by a score of 7-2 in extra innings

- Rocky lost to the Dodgers Friday night and had to work through the back door of their pool to be in the semi finals In the 5PM game, Tied 2 - 2 after 7 innings the Red Dogs exploded for 5 runs in the top of the 8th to defeat the Dodgers 7 - 2.

The Innisfail Indians upset and eliminated the Red Deer Razorbacks to return to the PBL championship series for the first time in 3 years

- Innisfail’s offense was mostlly based on a 3 run homerun by catcher Steven Bouteiller who put the Indians into the lead 4-3 in the 3rd inning and the Razobacks weren’t able to capitalize on runners in scoring position resulting in a 7 inning win for Innisfail 4-3.

The Parkland Baseball League Championship Series will be played between Innisfail and Rocky Mountain House starting the week of August 15th as both teams have players on the Innisfail Indians Junior AAA team that will be representing Alberta at the Western Canadian Championships this weekend in Manitoba

Don Von Hollen
PBL President

Sunday

11AM Pool A Semis (Lacombe vs. Rocky) has been pushed back to 2PM due to rain.

2PM Pool B Semis (Red Deer vs. Innisfail) has been pushed back to 5PM due to rain.

Saturday

9AM games Olds Athletics eliminate the Carstairs Cubs in the bottom of the 7th by scoring 2 to win 7-6

12PM game Innisfail Indians eliminted the Eckville Angels by a score of 13-9

3PM game saw the Rocky Red Dogs eliminate the Olds Athletics by a score of 15-0

6PM game Innisfail Indians eliminate the Beiseker Canadians by a score of 5 - 0

Friday Night

Red deer razorbacks defeated the Beiseker Canadians by a score of 9-3. The Rocky Red Dogs fell to the Lacombe Dodgers by a score of 3-1. Those wins by Red Deer and Lacombe send them straight through to the semi-finals on Sunday.

Its that time of year! The boys of summer from the Parkland Baseball League will be playing their championship tournament this weekend and Great Chief Park in Red Deer. Come out and support your favourite team! The tournament schedule is attached.

Don von Hollen

President- Parkland Baseball League

You can download the full tournament bracket and schedule by clicking HERE or you may view it online HERE

Wednesday night the Razorbacks hosted the Cubs in Red Deer.

Brad Hank started for the Razorbacks and Jared Holmans pitched for the Cubs. Both pitchers had good evenings. Hank going 6 innings and Evan Emerson closed it out. Jared Holmans went 6 solid innings for a complete game. After going up 2-0 in the 1st, the Cubs gave up 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st and the game was close from there on in. The Razorbacks beat the Cubs 5-3. The ‘Backs were aggressive on the base paths getting several stolen bases and putting runners in scoring position.

Key players for the Cubs were John Regehr, Lance Gordon and Robin Sharp, all going 2-3. The Cubs also had former Calgary Hitmen and World Jr. Silver Medalist Brandon Kozun in the lineup. For a guy who hasn’t played ball in many years, he looked decent out there and went 1-3, showing the quick hands that should get him in the NHL soon.

The Razorbacks scattered 6 hits over the game, by different players. Darcy Warawa came across the plate twice for them.

Last night saw the Cubs host the Indians in the grudge match series finale.

For the Cubs, they sent their rubber arm ace to the mound Brad Regehr. For the Indians, Kyle Burkitt tooke the hill. It was a pitchers duel all game. The Cubs managed to come away with a 2-1 Victory. The Cubs could only muster 3 hits off Burkitt all night, but reached on errors and walks and left 6 runners stranded in the 1st 3 innings. The Indians only got 5 hits of Regehr and both pitchers struck out 8 and pitched complete games.

The Indians got the bases loaded in the 5th, but could only muster 1 run off Brad Regehr.

The Cubs also got the had the bases loaded in the 5th inning, and with Mike Krieger already scoring, Brad Regehr was at 3rd and his lead at 3rd kept getting bigger and bigger, and out of no where, he stole home for the Cubs 2nd run. It was the eventual winning run.

Key Players were obviously the 2 pitchers tonight. But offensively, the Cubs were lead by Mike Krieger, going 2-3 with a HBP and 1 run scored.

Innisfail had 5 different players with hits, and Kyle Burkitt also went 1-3 with a walk.

Wednesday saw Carstairs travel north to Olds. The game started with Aaron Sept on the mound for the A’s. He had control issues on this night, and the Cubs jumped out to an early 4-0 after 1 inning, capitalizing on 4 walks in the inning. Olds made it close in the 3rd, scoring 3 runs to put the score at 5-3, but the Cubs again took advantage of walks throughout the game, and went away with the 11-6 win.

Sept had 10 walks on the evening.

Mike Krieger kept the A’s bats off balance, throwing a lot of strikes, and was able to mix pitches very well. He went 6 strong for the win, and Brad Regehr came in for the 7th and finished the game off for the Cubs.

Key players for the Cubs were Brad Regher, who continues his good play, going 3-4 with 3 runs, and a walk. Lance Gordon also continues his good play as of late, going 1-2 with 2 walks, and capped off the win with a highlight bomb from center field right to the catchers glove to get the runner at home to end the 6th inning.

Ryan Barrett went 2-4 for the Athletics, and Jeff Smyth went 2-3 with a walk.

In other news, Robin Sharp is set to become a UFA this offseason, and has stated he will take a hometown discount to stay with the club, citing family reasons. It’s still not determined if the Cubs will offer him a contract at this time.

Game 1 saw Brad Regehr go to the mound for the Cubs. He was on his game on this day, striking out 13, and the 1st 9 outs were strikeouts. The Cubs went away with a 9-1 win.

Ian Pears went 4-4 with 5 RBI’s for the Cubs in this game and Jared Holmans went 3-4 for the Cubs. Lance Gordon also hit his 1st home run of the year.

For the Angels Riley Poffenroth pitched a complete game, offensively the Angels could only muster 4 hits.

In the 2nd game, the Angels came out swinging. They sent Harlen Griffin to the mound and shut the Cubs out for the 1st 2 innings. Meanwhile, the Angels were on the sticks early collecting 2 runs in the 2nd and 8 more in the 3rd off Cubs Pitcher Andrew Walker. Home Runs by Harlen Griffen and Riley Poffenroth lead the rally before Ian Pears came in and shut the Angels down the last 5 innings.

The Cubs made it interesting scoring 3 in the 3rd and another 6 in the 4th, but couldn’t get anything going after that, as Colin Shaw quieted the bats of the Cubs.

Angels won 11-9 with Harlen Griffin going 2-3 with the HR, and Riley Poffenroth also went 2-4 also with a HR.

For the Cubs, Ryan Warehime went 3-4 with 2 RBI’s and Lance Gordon went 3-4 with 3 RBI’s.

On Monday, the Cubs were to host the Indians in Carstairs. There was a ridiculous amount of standing water in the outfield, and it was deemed unfit to play on at about 5:30. After a quick conversation between Steve Bouteiller and Ian Pears, they were able to secure the diamond in Innisfail for the evening. The umpires were already in Carstairs, thankfully all they had to do was backtrack towards Red Deer. Ian made about 40 phone calls in 10 minutes, and by 7:10ish the game started in Innisfail. The Cubs want to thank Innisfail again for the quick change of plans, and generous hospitality. It was a whirlwind 2 hours, and the amount of rain that fell from from Carstairs to Bowden would have suggested there would be no baseball played, but it turned out to be the nicest evening of the year to play for the Cubs. Even Jamieson & Galen from 96.5 CKFM made the trip, which resulted in a shattered windshield from a foul ball.

They game started with Innisfail jumping to the early 1-0 lead in the 3rd innings, The Cubs answered back to make it 1-1 in the bottom half. In the 4th, the Indians scored another 3. In the 5th, the Cubs came back to make it a tie game. Innisfail was able to regain the lead in the 6th making it 5-4 going to the bottom of the 6th. The Cubs started getting some key hits and the Indians make a couple errors and it allowed the Cubs to score 6 in the 6th to go up 10-5. The Indians put a late charge together in the 7th inning with the bases loaded, but couldn’t muster a run.

Key players to the game for the Cubs were John Regehr who went 2-4 with a triple and 2 RBI’s, and covered a lot of ground in center field defensively. Robin Sharp, who might be one of the oldest players in the PBL went 3-4 also with 2 RBI’s.

Mike Krieger started for the Cubs and went 6 giving up 5 runs, 3 earned, had 4 K’s and an unusual 6 walks. Brad Regehr came in and closed it out in the 7th.

The Cubs look to make it 2 in a row with a game on Tuesday June 21

Rocky Red Dogs defeat Innisfail Inidians in a classic pitchers dual. Johnson and Kirkman took the mound and battled back and forth. The Indians scored 2 runs in the first inning with their traditional small ball play. After that Johnson managed to shut the Inidians down for the rest of the game. As for the Dogs they scattered 5 runs throughout the game, while touching up Kirkam in the 6th with back to back doubles scoring 2 big insurance runs. Final score Indians 2 Red Dogs 5.

Last night had the Lacombe Dodgers play host to the Eckville Angels, and the Dodgers were coming off a rough outing against Red Deer. Brendan Huber got the start for the Dodgers and went the complete game. While Harlen Griffen also went the distance for the Angels in a 8-1 Dodger victory.

The Dodgers got the scoring started early in the first when Ron Cook lead off with a double and Brian Smith hit a single to score him to take a 1-0 lead after 1 inning of play. Huber kept the Angels scoreless through 3 as the Dodgers scored one in the 2nd and one in the 3rd to go up 3-0 after 3. Eckville did get out of a jam in the third though as the Dodgers had the bases loaded with one out but 2 big strikeouts by Griffen limited the damage. Eckville got on the board in the 4th when Colin Shaw lead off the inning with a double and Kyle French singled him in to make it 3-1. The run was unearned as the inning was kept alive with a dropped third strike by the catcher, which would have been the third out and left Shaw stranded at 2.

The Dodger offense got some insurance runs in their half of 4th by scoring 2. Josh Ernst scored his 2 run of the game and Ron Cooked his 3rd after getting on with errors and a passed ball. The Dodgers were up 5-1 after 4. That’s all that Huber needed as he shut the Angels down the rest of the way. While the offense kept hitting, with 1 run in the fifth and 2 more in the 6th for the 8-1 victory.

Harlen Griffin went 6 complete giving up 9 hits, 2 walks and striking out 7 in the loss. Huber had 3 hits, 2 walks, 1 hit batsmen but struck out 13 for the win.

Offensively the Dodgers were lead by Ron Cook going 2-4 but scored 4 times in the game. Tim Wasdal also went 2-4 with 2 RBI's on the day. Josh Ernst scored 2 runs in the game while going 1-3.

This puts the Dodgers at 5-2 on the season, tied for 1st with 10 points. Next action sees the Dodgers in Red Deer, June 24th at Great Chief Park to take on the Razorbacks at 7 o'clock. This will be a good game as the 2 teams are tied with 5 wins.

The Goliath Razorbacks defeated the Eckville Angels by a score of 15-10 on a damp Monday evening in Eckville to run their season record to 5-1, leaving them sitting alone atop the North Division standings. The Goliath Razorbacks needed a huge rally in seventh inning where they put 13 runs on the board to overcome the scrappy Angels. Pitcher Colin Shaw did a great job of keeping the Goliath Razorbacks hitters off-balance for the first 6 innings of the game. He managed to strike out 5 Goliath Razorbacks hitters while scattering 7 hits over the 6 innings. He also led the way offensively for the Angels, going 3 for 3 at the plate while driving in 3 RBI’s with a 3 run home run in the sixth inning.

Player/coach Kevin Stelsmaschuk continued to swing a hot bat and lead the way offensively for the Goliath Razorbacks. Stelsmascuk went 2 for 4 at the dish but capped off the stunning comeback with a grand slam to clear the bags in the top of the seventh inning. Also pitching in for the Goliath Razorbacks was second year player Chad Huseby as he went 2 for 4 at the plate and picked up his first home-run of the season with a solo shot in the third inning off of Shaw. Picking up the win on the mound for the Goliath Razorbacks was veteran left hander Tom Rodzinyak. Tom came in to the game in the 4th inning and struck out 5 Eckville batters on his way to the win.

Next up for the Goliath Razorbacks is a clash with their south division rival the Beiseker Canadians on Friday at 7 PM down at Great Chief Park. Beiseker won the players cup in 2009 and always field a competitive team. Bring the family down to the ball park for some great Parkland Baseball League action. Admission to the games is free.

Rocky Reds defeated the Olds Athletics twice in a rainy double header on saturday. The first game the Red Dogs manufactured 4 runs with the Athletics only scoring 1. Kris Johnson pitched a complete game striking out 8 Olds batters. Johnson also went 3 for 3 at the dish.

The second game was a lot closer with the Dogs coming out on top 5 to 4. Morgan king pitched 6 strong with Scott Hornstra coming in to close the game. Erickson went 2 for 3 with a triple and 2 runs scored. Olds put up a great effort in the second game manufacturing 4 runs in the late nnings.