Although the provincial championship has come and gone and the Jasper Bears already have their silver medals to show for it, the team is still playing ball.
This year, Jasper’s players opted to take part in Fall Ball, a developmental program organized by Baseball Alberta. The extended season gives teams a chance to play a few more games before the snow flies, without the pressure of medals and championships.
“This group of guys is serious about winning, but they know [Fall Ball] doesn’t mean anything, so it takes the edge off,” said Kathleen Buffel, coach of the Bears.
The program launched at the beginning of September and, so far, the Bears have travelled to Edmonton for two games—both of which they won—and have hosted two games in Jasper, again coming out on top in both. This weekend, a team from Edmonton will be in town for two more games, beginning at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Fall Ball will end Oct. 3, when the Bears travel to Edmonton for their last two games of the season.
Buffel said it was great to extend the season, especially after a disappointing finish to the provincial championships.
The championships were held in Rocky Mountain House in July. The Bears won their way into the finals and were set to face off against their nemesis: Devon.
“Devon had been our nemesis all year; we kept losing to them just by a couple of runs and we never had our full team there, or we had an injury, so we thought great, we’ll play Devon for gold and finally beat them and take the provincials.”
But that dream went out the window when Devon was disqualified.
“It’s complicated, but we have pitch count rules for each pitcher—they’re only allowed to pitch so many per day and it’s cumulative days in a row, so by day three it’s really important that you keep track and know who can pitch and who can’t. Devon made mistakes with two of their pitchers and they got disqualified,” said Buffel.
“So they were kicked out of the dug out. It was heartbreaking because we really like Devon. They’re a competitive team, they’re similar to Jasper, they’re fairly new.
“But what was really amazing was they sat in the stands and they cheered for our team.”
With Devon out of the race, the Bears faced off against Rocky Mountain House for the second time that day. The first game ended with a score of 21-11 for Jasper.
“It was a cake walk, we just went through and kept hitting," said Buffel. "So when the team saw we were going to play Rocky again ... they were saying, ‘really we have to play them again, we just beat them. I guess gold is ours.”
But that's not how the game went. Instead, the Bears lost in the final.
"We saved our best pitcher for the final—he’s our strikeout master, he gets in and he just strikes everybody out—but the umpire wasn’t calling his strikes, and all of a sudden it deflated the team.”
So, instead of beating their nemesis for the gold, the Bears lost to a team they had already beat, winning the silver medal for the second year in a row.
Despite the disappointing loss, Buffel said Jasper’s ballplayers gave it their best effort all season long and proved themselves to be a solid team from the beginning of the season right through to Fall Ball.
Nicole Veerman
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