Last night, the Junior Carillon Sultans had their last regular-season game against the Pembina Valley Orioles and won 8-3.
Co-coach, Joel Hartung says the team has had a great season and looks forward to the playoffs.
“We have first place wrapped up. This is our last regular season game. I think we’re 20 wins and five losses.”
He continues, “Playoffs start on Friday, we don’t know who we will play yet. It’s the best of three. We go there for game one, and then we host a doubleheader here at A.D. Penner Park on Sunday.”
Hartung says the team has a great camaraderie and it doesn’t go unnoticed by other teams, coaches, and umpires.
“We actually had a couple emails today and have been told by many coaches around the league that they love our guys,” he shares. “High compete, but they get along, they want to win the game, and they try their hardest all the time. But the way they get along and can forgive each other's errors and mistakes. It’s a great group of guys we have.”
Kevin Plett, coach of the 13U Landmark Boys Community Team says two of the Sultan’s players, Joseph Plett and Sam Toews help coach the younger boys when they are able.
Plett shares that the 13U team had their wind-up at Dairy Queen and then went to watch the Sultan’s game.
“I thought it would be fun to bring the boys to one of their games and cheer them on,” Plett says. “I feel at a community level, it’s extremely important for community players to watch the higher-level baseball to learn from them and to see how the game is supposed to be played. So we’re here chasing foul balls, running on the diamond in between innings for fun, and cheering on Jo, Sam, and the rest of the Sultans.”
Plett says the Landmark 13U team is one of the biggest teams they have had in many years with 14 players.
“We had a big team. We scheduled a few extra games and extra practices to make sure that the kids got enough playing time on the field,” he explains. “We had 5 kids that it was their first year of baseball and to join at the 13U level is a bit of a jump for them, but with the older players as an example, the kids did a great job of learning and as the season went on we started to have success.”
Friendships were made and they even brought home some wins.
“It took us half the season before we had our first win, but we managed to finish the season with 3 or 4 wins. Overall, a successful season for a rookie team like we had.”
Plett says he coached Joseph and Sam when they were younger and describes it as a treat to watch them continue to play together on the junior team.
He discusses how the team has been doing.
“The junior team is in first place again. Last year I feel like we could have won the whole thing, but we had it slip through our fingers in the playoffs,” he shares. “This year we’re trying to make sure that we capitalize on our momentum of being the top team in the league.”
Plett explains that his son Joseph didn’t play on the AAA teams growing up like other kids did but he has been doing very well.
“To see him flourishing now and playing at the college level and then coming home and playing on the Sultan’s team is a super fun treat.”
He continues, “Jo is hoping to play three more years of college baseball and then plans to play on the junior team in the summers when he’s home and hopefully moves on to playing for the senior team if everything goes according to plan.”
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