The Boston Pizza Braves are Red Deer’s newest provincial baseball champions.
The Braves downed the Beaumont Red Sox 16-9 Sunday in St. Albert to capture the Alberta bantam AA tier I championship and earn a berth in the Western Canada finals Aug. 13-17 in Surrey, B.C.
The Braves posted a 4-0 record in pool play, which gave them the advantage of having to be defeated twice by Beaumont in the final.
And they needed the extra game, losing the first game 7-3.
In the championship game, the Braves were led by catcher and tournament MVP, Reid Stoyberg, who had a run-scoring double and two singles in three trips to the plate. He also walked once and scored four times.
Stephon Fontaine drove in five runs and scored four times while Alec Mitchell ignited a four-run first inning with a leadoff single, then did the same to kick start a six-run fourth inning. He finished with three hits and scored twice.
Logan Marshall singled, walked and scored three times while starting pitcher Chaz Piché helped is own cause with a pair of hits and two RBIs.
Piché worked four innings, allowing 10 hits with Joe Ireland going the final three, allowing three singles.
The Braves opened the three-day tournament with a 17-8 victory over Beaumont, thanks to a seven-run second inning.
The key hit in the outburst was Marshall’s three-run triple. He had three hits and drove in five runs.
Stoyberg was three-for-four, which included a two-run home run, and scored three times.
Dylan Hollman started on the mound with Fontaine and Joe Ireland, who tossed one-hit ball over the final 2 2/3 innings, working in relief.
The Braves downed the Camrose Cougars 10-7 in their second round-robin contest with Marshall driving in three runs on two hits and picking up the win in relief of starter Stoyberg.
Piché recorded the save, allowing one hit in the seventh inning.
Stoyberg had three hits and scored twice and Alex Heinzlmeir added a pair of hits.
The Braves downed the St. Albert Cardinals 8-4 in their third game. The Braves led 5-3 in the sixth when Hollman laid down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt to score Anand Aggarwal, starting a three-run outburst.
Stoyberg had an RBI triple and scored twice while Fontaine drove in two runs with two hits and Ben McLavish picked up the win in relief of Piché.
The Braves final round-robin contest was a 14-8 victory over the Lacombe Dodgers.
The Braves trailed 5-4 after four innings, but a two-run home run by Fontaine in the fifth ignited a 10-run outburst over the final three innings.
Stoyberg was three-for-four with a double, two RBIs and scored three times and Hollman had three hits, Aggarwal a two-run double and Mitchell a pair of walks and scored twice.
Marshall started on the hill and went five innings with Jeff Ireland working the final two, allowing two hits and picking up the win.