Local Sports

Power pitcher Reign Letkeman is happy to be home and the Red Deer Riggers are more than happy to have him on board.The Red Deer minor baseball product suited up for his initial game with the Riggers Tuesday at Great Chief Park and helped the club post a 10-7 Sunburst Baseball League win over the Edmonton Cubs.

Led by rookie quarterback Cole Stewart, the Central Alberta Buccaneers saved their season on Saturday.

After making progress in their last few outings, the Red Deer Renegades received a reminder of just how far they have to go to really challenge the best teams in the Alberta Women’s Major Soccer League this weekend.

The Red Deer Renegades (15-2) are ready to make sure they reap the benefits of three years of hard work, turning the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League Junior B Tier II franchise from a bottom feeder into one of the best.

This season is all about baby steps for the Red Deer Carstar Midget AAA Braves.Nothing went right for the club early in the NorWest League, slumping out to a 0-11 start, but have now won four of their last seven and have gone deep into their last two tournaments, including splitting a double-header with the Okotoks Dawgs White at Great Chief Park in Red Deer on Wednesday night — dropping the opener 7-6 and mercying Okotoks in the second 13-2.

Chandler McLaren may have posted the low score at the McLennan Ross Junior Golf Tour’s stop at Lacombe Golf and Country Club on Wednesday, but he still was not thrilled with the way he played.The Wolf Creek Golf Course member was one of just three players to break 80 on the day, firing a 3-over-75, but it was the shots he didn’t make that had him thinking after the tournament.

The CFL West appears to be the alpha male division in the very early stages of the 2014 season, if the opening weekend results are an accurate measurement. One game is not an accurate measurement, but why should fear and common sense kick into the equation for my CFL West forecast?

When it comes to roping calves, the Cooper boys are in a league of their own. Maybe it’s the fact that they were swinging a loop since they were toddlers, or that their father Roy was a eight time World Champion, or that roping in Texas is as much a passion as hockey in Canada. But whatever the reason, there’s no arguing with the results. The talents of two of the three brothers took them all the way to the Showdown round at the 78th Annual Ponoka Stampede.

The stage is set for the richer than ever Ponoka Stampede Finals today. In true dramatic fashion, one of the regular players cinched up a spot in Monday’s steer wrestling event.It was a wild afternoon of bulldogging, with several cowboys making more exotic moves than the steers they were to wrestle. There were hoolihans, long reaches and bum first skids. It was kind of action that gives steer wrestlers nightmares when they think about the infamous Ponoka long score run.

The Red Deer Carstar Braves squandered a two-run lead and fell 7-4 to Spruce Grove in a Kamloops Canada Day midget AAA baseball tournament semifinal Sunday.Dylan Boreman cracked a two-run home run to provide the Braves with an early cushion, Brad Pope drove in a run to make it a 3-2 game for Red Deer and Ty Wagar stroked his second single of the game and then scored to give the Braves a 4-3 lead.