Cartwright adds western championship

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This article was published 21/08/2025 (260 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Cartwright Twins found a nice way to salvage their season on Sunday as they won the western Canadian senior AA baseball championship in Westlock, Alta.

The Twins, who lost in the provincial final to the Boissevain Centennials and fell in the Border Baseball League final to the Morden Mudhens, ended the summer on a winning note with a 4-2 victory over the West Winnipeg A’s.

“We felt like we had a really good year and then to lose in the provincial finals to Boissevain by one run and then to lose in our Border League final to Morden in the same week, to be honest, going out to westerns we weren’t super upbeat,” player-coach Drew Haight said. “We’re more ‘Let’s not lose in the final again.’

“It was a sense of relief in a way and definitely a nicer way to end when we thought we had a pretty good team and a pretty good year.”

Cartwright qualified as a wildcard because it lost in the provincial final in 2024.

Haight was joined on the team at westerns by his Twins teammates Ty Enns, Bryce Enns, Connor Drewry, Cody Milliken, Wyatt Livingstone, Von Mullin, Kieran Haight, Nik Kummer and Nick Riglin, plus five pickups, Anthony Friesen, Kaden Rozdeba, Drew Hilhorst, Maddux Mateychuk and Kyle Breemersch.

The Twins were without a pair of stalwarts in Wade Haight and Andrew Lougheed.

Cartwright opened with a pair of victories on Friday in Westlock, which is north of Edmonton. Mateychuk earned the win on the mound and Hillhorst hit a home run as they beat the Parkland Twins 9-3, and then Breemersch was credited with the victory as they topped the Westlock Red Lions 8-4.

Riglin pitched relief in both games.

“We couldn’t have expected to come out with two better games than that to start,” Haight said. “We wanted to get two wins so that we could basically guarantee being there on Sunday (for the playoff rounds). With the way the format was set up, it didn’t for sure guarantee it, but the way it shook out with the two wins we knew we would be there on Sunday.

“It set up for that third game where we didn’t have to use all of our pitching. It wasn’t a must-win, so that was a helpful way to start the tournament.”

On the second day, the Twins met the hard-hitting Carlyle Cardinals, who clubbed four homers en route to an 11-9 victory. Haight took the loss, with Connor Drury and Nick Kummer both going long for Cartwright.

“It was a wild game,” Haight said. “There were six home runs, it was back and forth. We knew before the game that we were going to play Carlyle again so it was interesting to see. It looked like they could hit the ball, that’s for sure. It worked out well because it got our bats going too. They were going in the first two games too but it kept them going.

“It was a good way to set up Sunday, even though we lost.”

It was a completely different affair on Sunday as the Twins earned an 11-0 mercy-rule victory after going up several runs in the first inning. The ageless leftie Friesen threw a one-hitter, and Rozdeba went 4-for-4 with a double, three runs and three RBI, while Bryce Enns drove in four runs.

“Anthony Friesen was pitching and he was completely dominant,” Haight said. “He took a no-hitter into their last bat and gave up one with 4 2/3rds pitched and got the next guy out. We managed to score enough to mercy them, which set us up nicely for the final so that we didn’t have to play a full seven innings and then another seven.”

Cartwright has picked up Friesen — who pitches for their Border Baseball League rival Pilot Mound Pilots — a number of times over the years, and certainly knew what to expect.

“He comes and just does his job,” Haight said. “I think this is the least amount of innings we’ve ever actually pitched him, and he seemed pretty grateful for that.”

The semifinal victory propelled them into the final against the West Winnipeg A’s in a rematch of the 2024 provincial championship game.

Rozdeba again rose to the occasion, hitting a home run and driving in three runs, while Ty Enns had the other RBI for Cartwright as they won 4-2. Mateychuk allowed just two earned runs on five hits, with Friesen earning the save by inducing the final out.

“Maddex was phenomenal,” Haight said. “He threw 6 2/3rds and was dominant. We went to Anthony to get the leftie-on-leftie to get out of it. We caught a bit of a break, their starting pitcher hurt himself in the second or third inning and had to come out and they had to put in a younger guy who didn’t get a chance to warm up and he made one mistake and Rozdeba hit a three-run homer off him. That was enough.”

The Twins can’t traditionally pick up Rozdeba because he plays in the South West Baseball League with the Oak River Dodgers, but since they were going out of province, they were able to snag him. Haight said the big catcher was terrific.

“We wanted somebody who could catch and play outfield,” Haight said. “He was real good. He was 12-for-19 or something like that with a bunch of extra-base hits and had a bunch of RBIs.”

He said Hilhorst was also terrific, batting leadoff and serving as a spark plug for the entire lineup. Haight noted Mullin also seemed to be on base all weekend and scored a lot of runs.

Cartwright has emerged as one of the top clubs in Manitoba senior AA baseball in recent seasons, snapping a 20-year drought to win the Border championship in 2022 and then again in 2024, while losing in the final in 2023 and 2025.

They also fell in the provincial AA final in both 2024 and 2025 after winning in 2022.

“It’s really nice,” Haight said. “Our team has sort of been the same group of guys for I don’t even know how many years. We actually had some newcomers this year after it felt like we had the same team for a long time. It was a long time coming. The generation right before us was really close and we just ran into some tough teams we couldn’t get past.

“With this group, we had to overcome Anthony especially with Pilot Mound, and when we found a way to get by him, once we got there we seemed like we had it figured out in a way.

“It hasn’t happened every year, but we’re lucky to win the league or provincials or westerns now throughout the years. We’ve had a pretty good run and we’re enjoying it.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com