By Taylor Chartrand

Sudden snowfall puts a halt on local high-school baseball tournament

May 4, 2019 | 12:46 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – It seems as though ‘Old Man Winter’ didn’t want any baseball to be played in Medicine Hat today.

Unfortunately, area-residents woke up to a fresh snowfall this morning, putting a damper on the local UCT high-school baseball tournament, which ultimately led to its cancellation.

“Due to the weather and the circumstances with the field having quite a bit of snow on it, it wasn’t going to be able to melt with the temperatures we were receiving today,” said tournament organizer and Mohawks head coach, Lyall Foran.

Foran says the decision to cancel the ten-team tournament was based on weather and wanting to get the out-of-town teams back home safely.

“We had to make a determination, especially for the teams that traveled from say Wilcox Saskatchewan or Cranbrook, that needed to get home before conditions got worse. As well, for these teams to come in and be staying at a hotel, cost-wise it wasn’t fair for them.”

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Leading up to the snowfall, Foran says his Mohawks were able to narrowly squeak in all three of their round-robin games. 

“We kind of fell a little flat in the first game and we fell a little bit short to Cranbrook, but our other games we came out on top. We were able to beat Foothills from Okotoks and then we actually played a league game, a tournament game, that counted yesterday against Brooks.”

And as per any tournament play, Foran says there was definitely some take-away’s.

“We started playing a bit better as the tournament progressed. Bats were getting a little more solid and defensively we got better. Hopefully, we continue that heading into next weeks games.”

Foran says his fingers are crossed that the weather gets better, as they look to suit up against Chinook from Lethbridge on Monday for a doubleheader and then they head to Swift Current to play the Midget AAA team there on Wednesday.

“So, hopefully we can continue building off of that and we can build some momentum when we play Notre Dame here next Saturday at home. Every game is a learning opportunity and hopefully we grow for provincials.”

Provincials are scheduled for May 24 and 25 in Okotoks.