Eston U18 Ramblers crowned Provincial Champions!
On the weekend of July 26, 27, and 28, the Eston 18U Ramblers traveled to Estevan for the Sask Baseball Tier 6 Provincial Championship. Despite not everything going as planned, they returned home as the 2024 18U Tier Provincial Champions!
The team, a blend of players from Eston and Leader, came together for the 2024 season due to a lack of numbers on their own. Coach Kevin Mathers reflected on the weekend's events: “It wasn’t easy, and it didn’t go as planned. It’s still crazy to think about how it all unfolded.”
Back Row – Chance Cocks (Coach) Alex Kleppe, Hudson Mathers, David Cocks, Keegan Nash, Mitchell Ehnisz, Brian Francis (Coach) Cruz Thome, Rhett Francis.
Front Row – Griffin White, Noel Thoppilan, Kalen Cocks, Karter Ries, George Myers, Kaiden Napper, Kevin Mathers (Coach).
The Ramblers kicked off their weekend with a Friday night game against Moose Jaw. They secured a comfortable 14-3 victory. “That’s the best possible start you can have. Mercying a team after five innings is huge for saving pitchers for the rest of the weekend,” Mathers said.
On Saturday morning, they faced Southey in a tightly contested game that went down to the last inning. “We were tied 6-6 going into the 7th. We didn’t score in our at-bat, so we needed to shut them down to force extra innings,” Mathers explained. “Unfortunately, the baseball gods weren’t on our side. A pitch hit the home plate, ricocheted off the catcher’s glove, and popped over the backstop, awarding the runner on 2nd two bases according to Sask Baseball rules. That scored the winning run for them, and we lost 7-6.”
This loss meant the Ramblers faced a must-win situation in their final round-robin game against host Estevan. “We thought we had to throw everything we had left to win this game,” Mathers said. They got off to a rough start and were down 9-0 halfway through. “The kids pulled it together and battled back to 9-7 but couldn’t complete the comeback. We were pretty bummed out with a 1-2 record, thinking we were done.”
However, luck turned in their favour. “Just when we thought our weekend was over, the tournament coordinator told us we’d be playing the next day,” Mathers said. The necessary outcomes had happened, resulting in a 3-way tie with a 1-2 record. Southey and Estevan finished 1st and 2nd with 3-0 records, respectively. The tie-breaker placed Eston in 3rd place due to having the fewest runs scored against them. “We were off to the semi-finals on Sunday,” Mathers noted. “I’ve never seen a 1-2 team make the playoffs before.”
Sunday morning, Eston faced the undefeated Estevan Brewers again. “We got off to a slow start, down 4-0, but didn’t get down on ourselves. We rallied to tie it at 4-4,” Mathers said. The game remained tied until the 6th inning. “With two runners on, Alex Kleppe hit a 3-run home run, putting us up 7-4, and we added another run for an 8-4 lead.” Noel Thoppilan then pitched a stellar game, throwing the entire seven innings on just 93 pitches. “It was one of the best pitching performances I’ve ever seen. He was lights out.”
The win put Eston in the Provincial Final against Southey, another team they had already faced and lost to. “We got off to a great start, leading 4-0 after the 1st, 9-2 after the 2nd, 11-4 after the 3rd, and 13-4 after the 4th,” Mathers said. However, disaster struck as Southey rallied back to tie the game 14-14. “In the bottom of the 6th, we regrouped and scored two runs, taking a 16-14 lead. We needed to shut them down in their final at-bat to win.”
The 7th inning began with some tension as Eston’s pitcher hit a batter and walked another. “With two on and nobody out, Griffin White didn’t panic,” Mathers said. “A pop fly to left-center resulted in a collision between the left fielder and centre fielder, but they held onto the ball. Then, the next batter struck out, and the final batter lined out. Just like that, we won!”
With that victory, the Eston 18U Ramblers were crowned the Sask Baseball 18U Tier 6 Provincial Champions. “It was a crazy weekend—exciting but very stressful,” Mathers concluded.