Local Sports

Missed opportunities will hurt a team in the best of times, in the league finals with a short series it can be a worst case scenario.The Red Deer Razorbacks missed a golden opportunity in Game 1 of the best-of-three Parkland Baseball League final, blowing a three-run lead with four outs to go to lose 6-4 to the Acme Pirates at Great Chief Park.

Former Red Deer Rebels captain Colin Fraser battled through one of the more frustrating seasons of his career in 2013-14, but the silver lining was he was still able to lift Lord Stanley’s silver chalice at the end of it.He shared this glory with Sylvan Lake on Sunday while raising money for the city’s new multiplex.

St. John’s, N.Lbrin., brings a lot of pleasant memories for Curtis Bailey.The Red Deer Riggers outfielder and head coach is the lone member of the Riggers team that won the club’s only national championship in 1997. That tournament was also held in St. John’s, and Bailey played the role of hero.

The promise and youth that is the Central Alberta Buccaneers cost them in the end.The Bucs were eliminated in the Alberta Football League playoffs with a 23-8 loss to the Grande Prairie Drillers on Saturday in Grande Prairie.

Chandler McDowell saved his best for last this summer.The Red Deer Golf and Country Club member avenged a playoff loss to Landon Stellingwerff in the 2013 Albert Golf Bantam Championship to win it all this year at the Wintergreen Golf and Country Club in Bragg Creek on Thursday.

The Red Deer Razorbacks are heading back to the Parkland Baseball League final for the first time since 2011.

Red Deer is not generally thought of as a power when it comes to producing top football players.That’s more of a historical view. That perception is changing and in a hurry.At the forefront of this movement is Notre Dame Cougars graduate Joe McQuay. Some scouting sites had him ranked in the top 10 of all high school linemen in the country this year.

The Parkland Baseball League semifinal is heading to a third and final game and the Red Deer Razorbacks are not happy about it.With an opportunity to sweep the Rocky Mountain Red Dogs on Wednesday night, the Razorbacks looked lost on the field at Great Chief Park, dropping an 8-2 decision to tie the series at 1-1. Game 3 goes on Friday at Great Chief Park at 7 p.m.

The 2014 CFL season has seen more laundry from the referees than a Walton-sized family with a 20-year-old Maytag washer. The general mood is zero tolerance for every infraction in the new kinder and gentler CFL, but the net result is frustration for both fans and players.

The celebrating is done and the Red Deer TBS Rampage are focused on their next title.The junior B tier I club earned their first Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League and Alberta provincial crown on Aug. 3, and on Saturday they will be taking the redeye to Halifax for the Founders Cup, the Canadian Lacrosse Association junior B national championship.