The Prince Albert U13AA Royals with their gold medals following their victory at the Western Canadian Baseball Championships on Sept. 3, 2023. (Prince Albert Minor Baseball/Facebook)

By Logan Lehmann

Overcoming Adversity

Year in Review: 13U AA Royals prevail in Provincials and Westerns on home field

Jan 1, 2024 | 5:00 PM

As 2023 draws to a close, paNOW is taking a look back on the most important and impactful stories of the year, as selected by our reporters and editorial staff.

The Prince Albert 13U AA Royals were on top of the Saskatchewan baseball world in 2023, capturing both a Provincial and Western title.

Both championships were won on home field at the Kinsmen Baseball Complex at Crescent Acres Park in P.A.

In the Provincial tournament, the Royals steamrolled through the round-robin and outscored their opponents 77-8 on their way into the playoffs. There they were met with little resistance, winning 7-1 over Maidstone in the semis and claiming gold over the North East Expos 3-0.

The 13U Royals begin to celebrate after the final out of the provincial championship game on July 23, 2023. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

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The Provincial win didn’t mark the end of the season as it secured the Royals a spot as the Saskatchewan representatives at the Western Canadian Baseball Championships in Kelowna the following month. However, the dream of Western Gold was short-lived.

The team was five innings into their first game at the tournament when a wildfire, the McDougall Creek fire, threatening the city forced its cancellation. That morning, the winds in the area changed direction and blew smoke from the fire towards the field and city, forcing the postponement and eventual cancellation of the tournament.

The McDougall Creek fire rapidly rampaged through the Central Okanagan, destroying around 190 homes and forcing the evacuation of as many as 35,000 residents. (THE CANADIAN PRESS via Catherine Woodyard)

READ MORE: ‘Absolutely gutted’: P.A. 13U Royals trying to make their way home after Kelowna wildfire cancels tournament

Having travelled all that way and barely getting the tournament started, Royals head coach Jason Van Otterloo said that telling the kids that the Championships were cancelled was one of the toughest things he’s had to do.

“I’ve done difficult things in my life, but it’s hard when you’re disappointing the kids in this way because it’s so out of our control,” he explained. “It’s hard to lose a baseball tournament after seeing the competition, man we had a really good chance of walking out of here as champions. But on the same foot, knowing that one of the Kelowna coaches lost his house before we played baseball [that] morning was pretty tough. [It] put it all in perspective.”

After coming home and weighing options, both the coaches and the Prince Albert Minor Baseball Association (PAMBA) agreed to host a makeshift Western Championship in P.A. after seeing the success of the Provincial tournament they had hosted a month prior.

“It was a real blow to all the teams right off the get-go after the cancellation,” said former and then PAMBA President Duane Krip. “Discussion started happening about ‘where’ and if there was still interest with those teams if we could reschedule them. P.A. stepped up and said ‘Hey let’s try and make this work and we can do it in P.A.’ One of the advantages that we have here of course is we just hosted the provincial championships in July so all the infrastructure – everything we need to host a major tournament like this was all in place and it’s just a matter of buckling down and making things happen.”

The Championship in Kelowna was set to host six teams, however, the rescheduled tournament in Prince Albert hosted four teams as two of the original clubs declined to participate. As a result, the Royals welcomed the Consort Cubs (Alberta), Brandon Marlins (Manitoba), and North East Expos (Saskatchewan 2, B.C’.s replacement) to the tournament.

Prince Albert had a tougher path to the Western final compared to in Provincials.

The Royals won their first game with ease over Consort before dropping their second contest in a high-scoring affair to Brandon. They then downed the North East by one run in the third and final round-robin game and defeated the Expos again in the semis to advance to the finals, where they cruised past the Cubs en route to a Western title.

“Going from gutted in Kelowna to top of the world. I’m so proud of these boys,” said Van Otterloo after winning Westerns.

The season ended following the final out at the tournament but the awards kept on coming for both the team and PAMBA.

The 13U AA Royals pose for a photo after winning Baseball Sask.’s Minor Team of the Year award in Saskatoon on Oct. 21, 2023. (Prince Albert Minor Baseball/Facebook)

In October, the Royals were named Minor Team of the Year while also helping PAMBA win the Minor Club of the Year. Additionally, Krip was awarded Builder of the Year where new President of PAMBA Nathan Noble spoke on the great leader he was and how influential he is to baseball in Prince Albert.

“Duane is going to be missed in Prince Albert as well as within our organization. He’s been a huge part of creating a great atmosphere and a great organization in Prince Albert Minor Baseball. We’re going to do our best to pick up [on] everything he’s done and keep building baseball.”

“Baseball is very strong and vibrant in Prince Albert right now.”

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com