Slow-pitch season kicks off this month in the Battlefords and Meadow Lake. (File photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By battlefordsNOW and meadowlakeNOW Staff

Play ball

Excitement for slow-pitch in the Battlefords, Meadow Lake

May 11, 2022 | 5:00 AM

Time to head to the ball diamond in northwest Saskatchewan.

Meadow Lake’s recreational slow-pitch league kicked off the 2022 season on Monday, with games taking place three or four nights a week for the next two months. Coordinator Kassidy Dunsing told meadowlakeNOW that they will have seven teams, close to what they had pre-pandemic.

“It’s close to what we had pre pandemic, so we hope to build up moving forward,” she said.

For years, the Meadow Lake league has run till the end of June, due to commitment lacking in the later summer months. Given the number of adults competing this spring, Dunsing said she’ll take the turnout after not having a league for two years.

“It felt like starting from scratch again,” she said. “We ended up with seven teams of a possible eight, so I’m happy with the total.”

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Based on the excitement so far, Dunsing said she’s hopeful about slow-pitch in the coming years. Players are already sharing how much they’re relishing the chance to come together a night or two a week.

“We were super hopeful that we would be able to run last year, which ended up being really disappointing,” Dunsing said. “So, people were very excited to have slow-pitch up and running this year.”

Extended season

The Battlefords have begun play in adult slow-pitch just yet, but the enthusiasm is also there. Wayne Klassen, Co-commissioner for North Battleford Coed Slow-Pitch, said they’re retaining the 11 game season structure, recently introduced to account for losing their year-end tournament.

With attendance down for that weekend and differences of opinion of hiring umpires, we thought it would be good to add a week,” he said.

May 23 is the first day of games, which run from Monday to Thursday every week until August 4. Klassen said they’ve also got a lot of excitement from teams, after just seven games per team in 2020 and restrictions pushing the season late in 2021.

“This year we’re back to normal, no restrictions, which should be a lot more fun,” he said. “There are some people who are still worried, which I get, but there should be a lot less of that now.”

Klassen said he hopes to get the number of entries in the league back up to their peak of 60 just a few years ago, while noting that COVID-19 concerns, lake enthusiasm, retirement and other factors have taken some players away. However, he’s continuing to take in calls from interested members of the community.

“We always have a few stragglers, but it’s close to complete, sitting around 32 teams,” he said.

Helping that growth for adult recreation is the use of social media. Klassen said since they started a Facebook page, attendance and interaction has improved.

“It’s just a gathering place not only for this league but tons of folks from towns with other leagues. It’s a good spot for that.”

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cjnbnews@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW