The Monsignor McCoy Colts will launch a playoff campaign for the Tier 1 Championship title in the South Alberta High School Baseball League on Friday.
The two-pool round robin playoffs will start at 12 p.m., with the championship game on Saturday.
The Colts come into the weekend as a team working on steady improvement.
“[We’ve] definitely had ups and downs, not winning as much as we’d hoped, but definitely getting better every game, especially having like a younger team out here,” said McCoy catcher Owen Fisher at a practice Wednesday night.
The junior varsity team finished with a league record of six wins and seven losses.
“Honestly, our main goal at the start of the year was to get better and the boys have shown that,” shortstop Ethan Grad said.
Pitcher Jayden Mook added: “We’ve all just been working together, we have good teamwork.”
McCoy is composed of Grade 9 and 10 students and are the only Junior Varsity team in their league.
Head coach Rob McDonnell said playing senior teams have made them stronger and more competitive.
“Although it’s a really short season, to see them improve as much as they have in that short time has been a lot of fun,” McDonnell said.
Losing just one game this weekend could mean the young team is out of gold medal contention.
“That just means that it matters,” said McDonnell.
“I think they’re ready for it and I think they’ll have a lot of fun with the experience.”
Going in as the fourth seed, McCoy’s first game will be against Brooks.
“They’re an older team. They’re mostly Grade 12s and 11s and they have really good, strong pitchers and they can hit the ball well, but our defense can cope with that,” said Grad.
Fisher added: “We’ve played a couple games against them now, haven’t had the best outcomes, but [we’re] always learning from [those] game and just getting better and hopefully bring out a win on Friday.”
McCoy is expecting their third round-robin game against Vauxhall to be one of the toughest.
The Eagle Butte High School Talons are also competing in the event.
The full schedule can be found below.
