Crossroads staff
The Fertile Valley Baseball League has expanded into Alberta.
The Oyen Eagles will be included in the mix this year, plus a new Kindersley entry, the Cubs.
Dreaming about the start of the baseball season
There was one other team that initially had interest in joining the league, the Midwest Diamondbacks, but they were unable to find enough players to compete.
The league has lost one team, the Eston Ramblers, who have dropped out due to insufficient numbers.
The Royals, the Rosetown Angels, Elrose Aces, Kyle Yellow Jackets, Beechy Breakers, Kindersley Klippers, Kindersley Raiders, Kindersley Stallions and Eatonia Wheat Kings are the returning teams, making 11 teams in total.
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Each team will play each other once, making it 10 games, five at home and five away.
The top six teams will then make the playoffs. The top two get first-round byes, while the sixth-place team plays the third place team and the fifth-place finishers play the fourth-place team. The first place team will then play the lowest remaining seeded team, while the second place, plays the remaining team as they compete for spots in the final.
It is hoped that both Kyle and Eatonia will actually be playing games on their home fields in the second half of the season, said league president Ryan Wickett.
Grass was seeded on the Eatonia field in 2016 but the Wheat Kings have played their home games in Kindersley the past two seasons, while the Yellow Jackets played home games in Elrose in 2016 and 2017. They did play a couple of games on the field last year and they hope that it will be good to go this year.
Wickett said that it’s been great to see the interest in the area grow.
“This is our eighth year and when we started, there were just a very few teams. We are now up to 11 teams which is great and it is good to see that the interest is funneling down to the younger teams as well,” he said.
Play will begin in May and continue through to July. Wickett says that although each team will play three games less during the regular season, emphasis will be placed more on the playoffs this year, having all best-of-three series. Last year, there was the one-game wildcard series (quarter-finals) that was played.
Last year, the Kindersley Raiders defeated the Kindersley Stallions to claim the league championship, second in three years. The Rosetown Angels won the other five of seven championships.
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