The Coronation Royals boys baseball team won silver in St. Albert during the U11 provincial championships. From the left, back row: Brian Selzler (Head Coach), Reid Hickman, Owen Heidecker, Elias Waldner, Albert Waldner (Assistant Coach), Elliott Beeching and Jason Faber (Assistant Coach). Front row: Brady Selzler, Shea Faber, Ryder Williamson, Ryan Glasier, Micaiah Webber, Liam Steele and Carter Stannard. Missing: Cherry Waldner (Manager). ECA Review/C. Waldner
For their first time entering provincials, the U11 Coronation Royals baseball team made a fantastic debut.
The Royals travelled to St. Albert for Baseball Alberta Tier VII Provincial Championships from Fri. July 26 to Sun. July 28 where they took home silver medals.
The U11 division, previously known as Mosquitos, is the first to have teams qualify for provincials making this win even sweeter.
Friday afternoon, in the first round robin game of the weekend, the Royals battled back late in the game but ended up losing 19 – 14 to the Strathmore Reds.
Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the game from Coronation was Brady Selzler.
Game two on Saturday morning saw Coronation defeat the Cold Lake Cardinals 15 to 6 with Elias Waldner named MVP of the game.
Pouring rain starting Saturday afternoon which meant two round robin games were moved to Sunday.
In the noon game Sunday, Coronation defeated the host St. Albert Cardinals team 14-1.
Shea Faber was named MVP for Coronation.
This win earned the boys a spot in the championship game at 3 p.m. against the 3-nothing Strathmore Reds team.
“It was good,” began coach Brian Selzler. “We started out with the loss in a tough game but then after that the kids battled hard and kept a good attitude of no-quit right and that paid off with the couple of wins to get us into the finals.”
The team did their best but ended up losing 9 to 5 in the final, earning silver medals.
“Once they had a second to realize what they had accomplished and think about it, they were all pretty excited with the fact that they had been one of two teams to get a medal.”
Owen Heidecker was named MVP for Coronation.
As for the season, coach Selzler was content with the level of performance and improvement made by players.
Even parents noticed a difference from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
“They definitely adopted what us coaches were preaching to them as far as you win as a team and you lose as a team and they were all definitely acting that way so that was really good to see. They would never quit a game until it was over and they weren’t the kind of team to point fingers at each other if something didn’t go right.”
“It was a fun season.”
The coaches, manager and players are grateful for the parents, grandparents, families, friends and the entire community for all of the support throughout this ball season.
“The whole year just really felt special since we had a lot of support from the community so that was really cool,” said Selzler.
Terri Huxley
ECA Review
