Baseball’s best come to Plumas, Neepawa

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Published on Friday, June 8, 2018

By Eoin Devereux

Neepawa Banner & Press

This past weekend, Plumas and Neepawa served as hosts to the 2018 Provincial High School Baseball Championship. In total, 12 teams from across Manitoba earned a spot in the tournament, by winning their zone championships.  For Zone Seven, our local zone, it was the William Morton Warriors of Gladstone, who earned the title and the right to challenge for the provincial crown. 

In their first game of the round robin on Thursday, May 31 in Plumas, as the Warriors faced the PCI Trojans, based out of Portage la Prairie. William Morton was able to come out on top, downing PCI by the score of 8-5. The second round robin matchup for the Warriors was set for Friday, June 1 versus the Dauphin Clippers. That game was also in Plumas and would see Dauphin pick up the win by a 16-5 margin. With that result, William Morton, PCI and Dauphin all closed out the round robin with an identical 1-1 record. With only two slots available in the playoff round, the teams who would be moving on had to be decided by run differential. For the William Morton Warriors, their minus eight combined run differential from their two games was the worst of the three clubs and eliminated them from further action on the diamond.

As for the playoff portion of the weekend, it would come down to the final out for the PCI Trojans in the final against the Steinbach Sabres on Sunday, June 3. With two outs and two runners on base, PCI’s Joey Moffat hit a 2-2 double to give his team a 5-4 lead. The Trojans then closed out the bottom of the final inning with three quick outs, ensuring their second straight provincial championship.