The Yorkton Pirates are provincial champions.
The local senior team, bolstered by players from Canora and Langenburg earned the Senior A Tier 2 title at a weekend tournament in Lloydminister.
Haberman said the team last captured the provincial championship in 2015, with seven of those players on this year’s roster as well.
But, winning never gets old.
“It’s pretty exciting ... It’s not easy to win a provincial championship,” he said, adding it was a definite team effort with all 14 players contributing. “... Everybody chipped it.”
Having the depth the Pirates did was definitely a key to winning.
“You need lots of pitching,” said Haberman, adding in 2017 they went to provincials in Estevan with only 10 players, adding they just didn’t have the bodies to be competitive then.
The Pirates started the round robin portion of the tournament Friday evening against the host Border City Blue Jays.
“They won provincials the last two years,” said Haberman.
Knowing the Jays were going to be tough the Pirates started Cody Rock on the mound, a pick up from Canora.
“He pitched a gem,” said Haberman. “We ended up beating them 2-1.”
Saturday’s action started against Carlyle, another team Haberman said has often been in the finals the last few years.
“We knew it was a pretty big game,” he said, adding, “we got off to a descent start.”
Then the Pirate bats quieted and Carlyle edged out to an 8-4 lead.
The Pirate bats then exploded in the top of the seventh to plate four runs to knot the score 8-8, only to have Carlyle score the winning run in the bottom of the inning for a 9-8 win.
Logan Calanchie was the Yorkton pitcher.
Dane Kobylko, a pick-up from Langenburg went to the hill next as the Pirates faced the Kindersley Stallions, with Yorkton earning a 3-2 win.
That left Battlefords for Sunday.
Haberman said the Pirates went into the game knowing they held the tiebreaker to be a finalist, one of the top-two teams.
“They had to win to get in,” he said.
With Kholton Shewchuk and Matt Poier pitching Battlefords got the win they needed 11-4.
So the same teams went to the final.
Logan Calanchie started, with Cody Rock entering the game to get the final five outs, after Battlefords scored two in the fifth inning.
Yorkton scored two twice in the contest for a 4-2 win.
“They were a pretty quick team,” said Haberman, adding when they picked off two steal attempts, it seemed to swing things the Pirates way.
