Broncos defend high school title

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/06/2023 (1157 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Boissevain-Wawanesa Broncos weren’t about to let a second championship slip through their fingers, beating the Vincent Massey Vikings 11-1 on Friday afternoon to win the Prairie West High School Baseball League championship.

The Broncos, who lost the provincial title to the Garden City Gophers on Saturday in Glenboro on a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning, earned their second consecutive league championship in a rematch of last year’s final.

“It’s really nice but it’s bittersweet,” Boissevain head coach Corey Billaney said. “Obviously a provincial final is something that anybody wants at the high school level. Three or four of the teams at the provincial championship were out of our league, so we have a very strong league.

“We came up against a pretty strong Garden City team, but to come back and win our league is really sweet.”

In the semifinal games, Boissevain beat Hamiota 8-3 while Massey topped Birtle 10-5.

Massey actually had the start they wanted in the top of the first inning, with Dylan Schrader tripling with one out and then being driven home by Skylar Ramsay’s infield single.

Billaney said it wasn’t ideal falling behind early, but it did serve a purpose.

“We kind of settled in after that,” Billaney said. “I wouldn’t say it’s something you like doing as a coach, giving up a run, but whenever you give one up early on, it’s kind of like ‘Hey, let’s play. We have a game to play here.’ It was not a wakeup call by any means but it was ‘Let’s get going, we have to get some runs ourselves.”

Boissevain tied the game in the bottom of the inning when Bryan Laing led off with a double and was driven in by Josh Fluker.

After Boissevain’s dominant left-handed pitcher Connor Martin struck out the side in the second inning — he already had five of his eight strikeouts at that point — the Broncos pulled away for good.

After Fluker tripled to drive in two, Boissevain had scored five runs, which is the limit allowed per inning in high school baseball, and it gave the Broncos a 6-1 lead.

“These guys always put the bats up for me,” Martin said of his teammates. “It’s nice.”

In the bottom of the third inning, after Rayan Sprott singled home Connor Martin, Mason De Ruyck connected on a Nolan Wright fastball for a long home run over the left-field fence to make it 9-1.

“I just stuck the bat at it,” De Ruyck said. “It was three and two in the count so I was kind of expecting a strike and it was in my sweet spot. I kind of saw and ripped it, I guess, which was the game plan.”

After neither team mustered anything in the fourth, Boissevain needed to score twice in the bottom of the fifth for a 10-run, mercy-rule victory, and it didn’t take them long.

After Martin walked, Sprott singled him in a batter later, and Tyler Robertson won the game with a triple that sent Sprott across the plate for the 11-1 final.

“Our offence was one of our key parts,” Billaney said of his team’s success. “We talked to the kids early and said ‘You know what, if you throw strikes, regardless of strikeouts, we’ll get some ground balls and fly outs and the defence will take care of itself.’

“Our bats were really unbelievable this year.”

Nash Stone took the loss, allowing six runs in two innings, while Wright and Porter Ewert also took the mound for Massey.

Massey sent just 18 batters to the plate in the five-inning game, and were three-up, three-down in the second, third and fourth innings.

“I had one triple hit off me and a little blooper got him in, but after that, I was pretty good and the boys were solid behind me,” said Martin, whose fastball and curveball were both very effective.

Martin threw a tidy three-hitter and issued one walk — one of Massey’s four base runners was caught in a rundown — with just one ball leaving the infield.

“He’s our ace,” De Ruyck said. “He’s probably one of the best pitchers in the province. We can definitely rely on him but it’s pretty boring in the outfield when he’s pitching.”

While it was a second consecutive season making it to the final and falling to Boissevain, Massey head coach Dwayne Stone was pleased with his team.

“Hitting is extremely important,” Stone said. “If you can’t generate some offence, they will bury you by the end of the day. Those guys have some good pitchers, good fielders and they’re all around a good team.

“We feel proud. These guys were runner-ups at provincials and we had the provincial champions on the ropes (at provincials) right up to the end. We can play with them, but it’s baseball and sometimes it’s not in the cards. Today was one of those days.”

FOUL TIPS: Boissevain previously won the league in 2011, 2012, 2018 and 2022 … The Vikings last won in 2013, 2014 and 2015 … The final games were originally scheduled for Thursday but were rained out and moved to Friday … No championships were contested in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, so Boissevain has actually won three of the last four titles. Hamiota won the championship in 2019.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson