The Red Deer Peewee AAA Braves broke out the big sticks at the 13U AAA Provincials.
After a 7-1 win in the morning Saturday, Red Deer exploded for 12 more runs in a 12-2 victory over the Edmonton Expos.
The offensive outburst, including a line drive laser home run by Addison Giesbrecht was not unexpected by head coach Paul Claerhout.
“With peewee baseball, you have to be making plays. As long as you make plays, you keep things clean and everybody is happy. We win ball games. That’s the difference (Saturday),” he said.
“Of course you have to score runs, they hit the ball hard and made our way around the basepaths and scored a bunch of runs. We’re happy with the performance.”
Red Deer also got a big performance from starter Tanner Morrow, who pitched all five innings and held the Expos at bay the majority of the afternoon.
The defence was also strong behind him, something that Claerhout said is a big reason why they’re 2-0.
“We keep it clean in the field if we can. Keep the errors down and we can always hit the ball, we’re a pretty good hitting team,” he said.
With a pair of wins on Saturday, Red Deer advanced to championship weekend from Aug. 3-4, which will also be at Great Chief Park.
“We’ve punched our ticket to next weekend, so we’re really happy with that, but we want to win one more game,” Claerhout added.
Sunday, the Braves won a tight battle 10-8 against the Okotoks Dawgs and clinched first in pool B. The undefeated weekend earned a bye to the semi-finals next weekend.
Red Deer will play at 3 p.m. at Great Chief Park on Aug. 3.