SUMMERSIDE – Eight peewee teams will be competing for regional bragging rights this week.
The Baseball Canada 2018 13-and-under Atlantic championship gets underway at Queen Elizabeth Park in Summerside on Thursday morning. Play continues until the medal games on Sunday.
The event features two teams from P.E.I., Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. The teams will play a three-game round robin within their four-team pool. The host Summerside Chevys and Capital District Islanders from Charlottetown are representing P.E.I.
“It’s going to be a fantastic event,” said Darren Gallant, head coach of the host Chevys. "It’s always an honour playing with the best young ballplayers on the Island.
“The fact you get to host this calibre of tournament it’s going to be exciting for all those getting to watch and also the players involved.”
Round-robin play concludes on Friday afternoon, with the crossovers and semifinals set for Saturday afternoon.
The core group of the Islanders is no stranger to playing in big games. Capital District defeated Fredericton in the final to win the Atlantic mosquito AAA championship two years ago.
“We feel pretty comfortable going into these type of events,” said Islanders head coach Mark Arsenault. “We’ve talked about tournament baseball a lot, and maintaining our emotions, not getting too high or too low and understanding the situation.
“It’s always nice playing on the Island, playing at home and being able to sleep in your own bed. We are pretty comfortable with the fields up in Summerside, having played up there quite a bit this summer and past summers as well.”
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Teams
Baseball Canada Atlantic peewee championship teams:
Pool A
Summerside – Host.
St. John’s – Newfoundland and Labrador One.
Halifax – Nova Scotia One.
Kennebecasis Valley – New Brunswick One.
Pool B
Capital District – P.E.I. One.
Fredericton – New Brunswick One.
Truro – Nova Scotia Two.
Mount Pearl – Newfoundland and Labrador Two.
Schedule
Baseball Canada Atlantic peewee championship schedule:
Thursday, Sept. 13
8 a.m. – VIV Field: Mount Pearl vs. Fredericton.
8:15 p.m. – Gordie Arsenault Field: Truro vs. Capital District.
10:45 a.m. – VIV Field: Summerside vs. St. John’s.
11 a.m. – Gordie Arsenault Field: Kennebecasis Valley vs. Halifax.
1:30 p.m. – VIV Field: Capital District vs. Mount Pearl.
1:45 p.m. – Gordie Arsenault Field: Truro vs. Fredericton.
4:30 p.m. – Opening ceremony.
5:30 p.m. – VIV Field: Halifax vs. Summerside.
5:30 p.m. – Gordie Arsenault Field: Kennebecasis Valley vs. St. John’s.
Friday, Sept. 14
10 a.m. – Gordie Arsenault Field: Fredericton vs. Capital District.
10:30 a.m. – VIV Field: Mount Pearl vs. Nova Scotia.
1 p.m. – Gordie Arsenault Field: St. John’s vs. Halifax.
1:30 p.m. – VIV Field: Summerside vs. Kennebecasis Valley.
End of round robin.
Saturday, Sept. 15
10 a.m. – VIV Field: Fourth-place Pool A vs. fourth-place Pool B (seventh-place game).
10 a.m. – Gordie Arsenault Field: Third-place Pool A vs. third-place Pool B (fifth-place game).
1 p.m. – VIV Field: Second-place Pool B vs. first-place Pool A (semifinal).
4 p.m. – VIV Field: Second-place Pool A vs. first-place Pool B (semifinal).
Sunday, Sept. 16
10 a.m. – VIV Field: Bronze-medal game.
1 p.m. – VIV Field: Gold-medal game.
Chevys
Summerside Chevys’ official tournament roster:
2. George Gallant, IF/C.
5. MacKenzie DesRoches, IN/OF.
7. Tyson Wedge, IF/P.
9. Brandon Smith, IF/P.
11. Caleb Gallant, IF/P.
21. Owen Jones, OF/P.
23. Bennett Gallant, IF/P.
25. Elliott Proud, P/IF.
27. Josh Burgess, P/IF.
34. Hayden Ellis, OF/P.
42. Maddix Hamilton, IF.
44. Jacob Watkins, OF/P.
51. Cole Echlin, OF/C.
Coaches
Darren Gallant
James Wedge
Wes Echlin
Mikeal Thomas
Chef de mission
Randy Byrne
Islanders
Capital District Islanders’ official tournament roster:
4. Connor Rowell, OF.
5. Brett Arsenault, SS/C.
6. Owen Murphy, OF/2B.
7. Cameron Doyle, 2B/SS.
8. Jack Rowell, OF/3B.
9. Shannon MacDonald, 1B/P.
10. Luke Coughlin, C/SS.
11. Graysen LaPorte, C/3B.
12. Brayden Bruce, OF/3B.
13. Ryan Harper, C/OF.
14. Wil White, OF/P.
15. Jack MacKinnon, OF/1B.
16. Jack Burke, 3B/P.
19. Cameron Sanderson, OF2B.
Coaches
Mark Arsenault
John Burke
K.J. White
Chris Hedefine.
Chef de mission
Randy Byrne
Coaches Comments
P.E.I.s head coaches offered the following comments:
Mark Arsenault, Capital District Islanders: “We have been playing pretty well since June. We won the Summerside tournament, we won the eliminations and provincials. We have been playing pretty good baseball. It’s a long tournament and obviously with it being a Baseball Canada event most of the teams have picked up extra players, so the depth will be there. We feel we are deep team and we rely on all 12 of our guys, and we’ve added a couple of more bodies. We are feeling pretty good going into the weekend, and we have a hard-working team. They are used to playing in big games now.”
Darren Gallant, Summerside Chevys: “We are a very young team. We only had four second-year kids and seven first-year kids. Going into this Atlantic championship we were able to pick up an additional two players from around the league. We picked up two players from Eastern, who are both second-year kids. Still, going into an Atlantic tournament with seven first-year kids is a daunting task to say the least. We had quite a bit of success. We won a tournament early on. The boys, even though we are young, definitely have the skill set to play at this level and confidence will be the biggest thing. If we get off to a good start and get confident early, they will be fine throughout.”
