The Tara Longhorns mob their right fielder after he records the final out to win the National Championship on Aug. 13, 2023. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW staff)

By Logan Lehmann

Play ball

Year in Review: City awarded Softball World Cup, Tara Longhorns capture National title in P.A.

Jan 1, 2024 | 5:00 PM

It was a big year for softball in Prince Albert in 2023.

The city not only hosted the U15 Boy’s Canadian Fast Pitch Championship, but also received some big, exciting news earlier in the year.

In January, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced that Prince Albert will host one of the three WBSC Men’s Softball World Cup Group Stage qualifiers in 2024 as well as the XVIII (18th) Softball World Cup Finals in 2025.

“It’s huge for the City, the committee, and for the softball community,” said Derek Smith, one of the members of the local bidding committee. “To be able to put on another world-class event in both 2024 and 2025, we’re going to get the fans out and it’s going be exciting around the ballpark. It’s been a long go in the making, we started the whole process about eight years ago when we bid to get (the 2018 U19 Men’s World Cup) here and pulled off a very successful tournament.”

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Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dionne was also on hand for the announcement and was excited about these future tournaments, but he also said there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“We did realize that once we finished some tournaments that we had here, one of the score clocks need to be replaced,” he said. “Another thing is that one of the fields is too small, so it’s just minor upgrades like that. There will be a bit more seating too because we know what happened last time with the seating so we’re going to work on more seating and more abilities like that.”

All games for the tournament will be played at the Max Power Ball Parks at Prime Ministers Park. The 2024 qualifiers are slated for July 10-14 while the World Cup is scheduled for July 8-13, 2025.

Mayor Greg Dionne speaks at the WBSC 2025 Men’s Softball World Cup press conference inside the Art Hauser Centre alongside local bidding committee members Ian Litzenberger (left) and Derek Smith (right) on Jan. 10, 2023. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW staff)

READ MORE: Prince Albert awarded pair of major Men’s Softball World Cup events

This past August, the city and the Prince Albert Astros hosted the U15 Boy’s Canadian Fast Pitch Championship that featured 10 teams from across the nation playing for National gold.

Those 10 clubs competing in the tournament included four from Saskatchewan, four from Ontario, and one each from Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

One of the four Ontario teams, the Tara Longhorns were the eventual gold medal winners of the tournament after defeating the Newfoundland Selects in the championship game, 10-3.

The U15 Boy’s Canadian Fast Pitch Champions, the Tara Longhorns. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW staff)

“I’m very proud of our boys for the hard work they put in this week,” said Longhorns coach Ty McComb. “We came from behind three or four times this week and [the team] never stopped – they never stopped believing in each other and pulled through in the end.”

READ MORE: Tara Longhorns win U15 Boy’s Canadian Fast Pitch Championship

Rounding out the podium and taking home bronze at the Championships was the Napanee Express of Ontario. As for the Astros, they finished the tournament in the middle of the pack at an even record of four wins and four losses.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com