Carillon Sultans aiming high at U18 provincials

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This article was published 26/07/2024 (194 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At the end of the day on July 28, the Carillon Sultans are hoping to be able to call themselves provincial champions.

The Sultans are taking a strong group to the U18 AAA provincial championships in Winnipeg, which are set to kick off July 26. The six best teams in the province will play a round robin, before the top two teams face off in a winner-takes-all championship game on Sunday.

“I’m willing to put our depth up against everyone else,” head coach Don Meilleur said.

“Our strength all year has been our pitching depth. In a format such as this with five round robin games before getting to the finals, I’m very confident we have five starters I can give the ball to and say ‘go win this game.’”

While the performances on the mound have been there, Meilleur said he’s a little worried about the team’s ability to generate offense.

“I think we’ve been too patient at times, waiting for the perfect pitch,” Meilleur said.

“We’re seeing a lot of strikeouts looking. As coaches we want them to be more agressive. If you know you’re going to get a first pitch fastball for the pitcher to get ahead in the count, then lets rip it. We don’t want to get deep in a count and then guess.”

After getting off to an incredible start to their season, the Sultans have waned in the past few weeks, dropping games to Midwest, Winnipeg South, Bonivital and both games of a double-header against South Central.

Before heading to the tournament, Meilleur has scheduled a pair of practices for this week, where he’ll set out the tournament-wide strategy to the team and set them up to win the province and clinch a spot at nationals.

“We’re going to have some time to talk through getting some focus and figuring out what do we want to accomplish this weekend and how we get there,” Meilleur said.

“What kind of support do we need on the bench, what kind of energy. We’ll talk to the guys a lot on Thursday, and just get them mentally focused and mentally locked in for the games this weekend.”

The U18 AAA baseball provincials are taking place at Charleswood Place in Winnipeg this year. The Sultans will play two games July 26, two games July 27, before a final round robin game July 28 against South Central.