The Estevan U18 AA Brewers had a stellar performance over the weekend that fell just short of a first-place finish, with their final game against the Weyburn Beavers on Sunday ending in a loss.
Coach Jeff Kuchinka says that overall, the team played well, with some good performances throughout the weekend.
"On Friday night, we lost their opening game against Prince Albert in a tight one. We got a few runs off early, but we made a valiant effort for a comeback, just came up one run short in that game. Then Saturday morning, we played the Moose Jaw team, and we beat them 15 to 5, I believe. We played Weyburn for the first time in our third round robin game Saturday afternoon and ended up beating them 10-2, I believe.
"Sunday morning, we had a semi-final game against the Saskatoon Phillies. That was the number one-ranked team in our league, they squeaked one out on us in their regular season by one win, and we handed them a loss Sunday morning to get to the finals. Then we played Weyburn again in the finals and just came up a couple of runs short."
With a 20-5 regular season and a finals appearance behind them, Kuchinka says he feels the team did well over the 2025 run.
"I feel like the team had a lot of growth this year. We started off the season a little slow, but the boys really came around, and we ended up having a really good season to go an entire regular season with only losing five games. It's pretty impressive. And then 3-2, in provincials, is also pretty good. To come off a year where we won last year to be right back there this year is, in my opinion, a pretty good feat for the boys to have accomplished."
With the year for the team finished, Kuchinka is now looking at next year's baseball lineup as a few players are moving on from the U18 group.
"We've got 4 graduating players this year, they'll all be moving on to bigger and better things, going to university and whatever it is that they're moving on to do. So of our fourteen players, 10 of them potentially could come back and play with us again next year."
Meanwhile, getting the younger kids onto the team has always gone well for the team, so Kuchinka is positive that the next group will do well.
"We've done really good over the last few years about developing kids through the years, and I've never really worried about kids coming up. There are lots of good ballplayers in Estevan."
Kuchinka says he's proud of how all the players did this year and how far the team went.