Joe McWilliams
Lakeside Leader

The baseball season continued for Slave Lake Midget players William Chemago and Matthew LaFrance on the August long weekend. The Grande Prairie ‘AAA’ team they play for took silver in the provincial Tier I championship tournament in Sherwood Park, qualifying them for one more tournament. That’s the Western Canadians, held this coming weekend in Red Deer.

The GP Northern Lights went 2 – 2 in the provincials, losing to St. Albert in the final.

According to Dave LaFrance, the Lights started off with a 5 – 3 win over host Sherwood Park and followed that up with a 10 – 0 loss to the Parkland Twins.

Up against the Jasper Place Jays, GP had to win to advance. This they did, by a 7 – 5 score.

Sunday morning’s semi-final game vs. the Calgary Bandits was “exciting and gut-wrenching,” LaFrance says. GP won in extra innings, 3 – 2. Matt LaFrance pitched three innings in relief and scored the winning run.

Further details come by way of Harry Bartlett, who not only watched, but recorded the details in a baseball scorebook. Both Slave Lake boys made significant contributions, he says.

In the first game, for example, Chemago went 2/4 at the plate and scored a run. LaFrance also scored a run.

In the third game, Chemago again had two hits. LaFrance went 1/3 and drove in the sixth and seventh runs.

Bartlett says it would be good to mention Alex Martin of GP; he’s the guy who hit the deep ball in the bottom of the ninth inning, allowing LaFrance to tag up and score, sliding in ahead of the tag.

“Identical play to Fort McMurray,” Bartlett says.

In the final vs. St. Albert, GP had nine hits and stranded 11 runners.