Reds take silver at Canadian championships

Melissa Strle
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore Reds bantam AA baseball team won silver at the Western Canadian Baseball Championships in St. Albert on Aug. 14.
Head coach Jason Tanton provided skilled leadership to help guide the team to win provincials and then to win silver at this major sporting event.
Over the weekend, the Reds played five games. There was a three-way tie for second place after the round robin between Strathmore, B.C. and Saskatchewan. All recorded two wins and two losses.
However, Strathmore gained second place after the round robin since it had the closest games and went on to play Manitoba in the final, which the Reds lost by a score of 7-0.
According to Tanton, the team did well all weekend but the final game simply didn’t happen in their favour and they “just couldn’t find a way to win. The team that we lost to in the final, we had a 7-6 game with them in the round robin, so we were right there,” he said.
The team did very well considering Alberta has not traditionally medaled at this type of event, said Tanton, who added he is very proud of his team and its accomplishments this season and noted that team cohesiveness played a big part in this year’s results.
“The thing that stood out to me the most was we didn’t have any superstars on our team. We had a slogan all year long that was ‘14 strong.’ And that was we needed all 14 of our players to step in and play at any time and any place, and that’s how we won provincials and that’s how we succeeded at Westerns,” said Tanton.
“It wasn’t because of one person. It was simply because we had the best 14 players to make up the team in the province for sure.”
Tanton enjoyed the season and stated: “It was the best season I’ve been a part of in my 20 years of coaching. It’s a good group of kids. They’re just fantastic.”
As for coaching next year, Tanton declined to comment.