Baseball in the southeast will reach its peak this weekend as the Saskota Men's Baseball League hosts the Jack Harbourne Memorial Tournament. The event pits the eight top teams against each other to see who comes out on top.
Riley Singleton, the president of the league, says action will take place across the southeast beginning tonight.
"We've got eight teams that have qualified with the Southeast Diamondbacks coming into the tournament, sitting in first place. Friday night, the top four teams are each going to host a game in their communities, with the exception of Weyburn, which is fourth, because their diamond is booked. So they're going to play that game in Kenosee, and Weyburn will still be the home team."
All eight teams then gather in Carnduff on Saturday and Saturday to face off for two games each in pool play. The winner is then decided on Sunday with semi-finals and a gold medal match between the top two ranking teams.
Singleton says heading into the weekend, he's expecting some close matchups, including a dethroned first-place position.
"It's been a great season, the league is as balanced as it has ever been. The standings were finally settled on Monday night after the last regular-season game was played between Estevan and Carlyle. We saw a little bit of a change."
"Carlyle has been at the top of the standings for quite a few years here recently, but the Diamondbacks had a good turnaround season, and they're coming in seated first this year."
With games in Estevan, Carlyle, Carnduff, and Kenosee on Friday, all at 6:30 p.m., the southeast will be full of high-intensity baseball action.
Working with all those teams has gotten easier as Singleton says he's gotten plenty of practice as the president.
"I've been doing it for a while now, so it doesn't take too much on my end anymore to fill in the blanks as I go. So just a lot of communication with the team throughout the week, and make sure everybody's got everything in place."
Carnduff also hosted last year's tournament, and Songleton is confident that the community has all of the facilities both on the diamonds and off to make sure the weekend goes well.
Singleton recommends that anyone who wants to learn more about some of the games can find more information by heading to their website.