They’re the best in the league, and Slave Lake’s Sawridge AAA Heat proved just that Saturday when they captured the crown with two decided wins in St. Albert.
“It’s some exciting baseball,” said an elated manager Hugh McEvoy shortly after the champs’ final victory Saturday afternoon.
He says when the Calgary Dinos didn’t show up for their scheduled game against the league-winning St. Albert Tigers, the game became a match against Strathcona, the Sherwood Park-Fort Saskatchewan team which originally had a bye.
In an astonishing show of grit, the Strathcona team managed a 3-1 victory, knocking St. Albert from contention.
In its first game of the day the Heat took on Parkland. And even though the competitors were first on the scoreboard, strong pitching from J.P. Mailhot limited that scoring streak to one while Jeff Lindmark knocked in the tying run — and Bryan McEvoy in the winning run — in the fourth inning for a 2-1 victory.
Mailhot pitched the entire game.
The Heat next met Strathcona, and again was the last on the scoreboard.
But both Blair Sinclair and Bryan McEvoy made “huge diving catches” when it most mattered, added the manager, and Lindmark, J.P. Mailhot and Murray Cronk scored to take the Heat to a 3-1 victory at the end of seven.
That game went down to the wire when Strathcona loaded the bases in the seventh inning, “but we had two big plays from Josh Gryschuk and J.P.” that saved the day. Brad Sinclair pitched the entire game.
The win makes the Heat the first team north of Edmonton to capture the league title, says McEvoy, a huge feat in itself.
Even better was the news that the team’s coach, Kevin Bohnert was the unanimous choice for Coach of the Year in the league.
Bohnert will lead his team into the provincial championships this weekend in Ft. Saskatchewan and he likes their chances if they play the way they have in the past five or six games.
“They’re playing real well,” he says. “Hopefully the guys can stay that way. It would sure be nice to win this tournament.”
The provincials will feature a couple of teams that did not play in the Alberta league this year, but played exhibition games in Canada and in the United States.

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