“The teams are very well organized, so there was no surprise there. Both teams were in contention, they were competitive. They fit right in. There were no issues and everything is looking good.”
Souris returned last year as well, and the league had no problem with two teams bearing the Cardinal moniker.
Tycoles said they would always be open to adding more teams if the situation was right. At this time, Elkhorn is in a leave of absence, and you never know where ball teams might come from. However, he remembers when he first got involved, there were only three teams in the league, so they are definitely in good shape now.
Once again, the teams will be playing in two divisions, the same as last year. The North will consist of the Young Guns, Rivers Comets, Reston Rockets, Oak River Dodgers, Hamiota Red Sox, Virden Oilers. The South will have the Centennials, Deloraine Royals, Souris Cardinals, RF Cardinals and Wawanesa Brewers. Tycoles said they gave Reston the choice of what division to play in and they chose to be close to Virden. The North will play 15 games, while the South will have 14, as they have one fewer team. The schedule will be focused on inter-division play, with a game per team outside.
The regular season will wrap up on July 5, and then the playoffs will start. The first round in divisional play will be a best of three, with the semi-finals best of five. The winners of North and South will face off in a best of five final. One change this year is if the two teams in the final have a tie in losses, their head to head record will decide who has home field advantage.
Tycoles feels there should be plenty of competitive baseball this year. Oak River always fields a good team he said, and the two Brandon squads and Rivers should also be strong. However, Boissevain will be going for their fifth consecutive championship. A young and very strong group, Tycoles said they remain the team to beat.
The Cents also won provincials last year. They will be heading out to the Western Canadian Championships in Saskatoon. They are scheduled for August 14-16.
Tycoles said everyone would like to see it warm up, including those heading to the diamond next week. Some teams have been getting the bats and gloves ready indoors, but he felt most had not yet hit an outdoor field. Once they get going, the hope is they do not have too many rainouts. This impacts the schedule, and when you have a league where the teams are fairly close together, one stormy night can impact several games at a time. At any rate, they are anxious to get started.
“We sure are ready to go,” Tycoles said. “We always do look forward to it.”
Local teams hit the field starting May 19, with Souris visiting Deloraine. Boissevain starts their season at home against Wawanesa on May 20, with Reston visiting Virden on May 22.
by PAUL RAYNER, Recorder staff