2009 Annual Award Winners

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We are pleased to present the recipients of the 2009 Sask Baseball Annual Awards. These awards were presented during our Annual Awards Luncheon at the Regina Inn on Saturday, October 17th.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
EVAN ZERFF – REGINA
(ACCEPTED ON BEHALF OF HIS FATHER)

2009 - Player

MINOR PLAYER OF THE YEAR
BRAYDEN RESCH – SASKATOON

2009 - Minor Player

SENIOR TEAM OF THE YEAR
HOLDFAST TRAPPERS

2009 - Senior Team

MINOR TEAM OF THE YEAR
SASKATOON PEE WEE AAA CARDINALS

2009 - Minor Team

BUILDER OF THE YEAR
AARON ELMY – MELVILLE

2009 - Builder

JOE MCDONALD SPECIAL AWARD OF MERIT
NATHAN BOURASSA – SASKATOON

2009 - Special Merit

PATRON (SPONSOR) OF THE YEAR
WESTERN CYCLE SOURCE FOR SPORTS – REGINA
ACCEPTED BY JOHN CARMICHAEL

2009 - Patron

MANAGER OF THE YEAR
MIKE RESCH – SASKATOON

2009 - Manager

LOU SLOTSVE JUNIOR OFFICIAL OF THE YEAR
ANDREW LAMBORN – SASKATOON
(PRESENTED BY MARIE SLOTSVE)

2009 - Junior Official

SENIOR OFFICIAL OF THE YEAR
SCOTT MILLS – SASKATOON

2009 - Senior Official

Congratulations to all winners and thank you for taking part in our 2009 Annual Awards Luncheon.

Team Red beats Team Grey in intersquad game at JNT Fall Camp

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

ORLANDO, Florida – Jalen Harris (Toronto, ON) contributed on four runs and Nick Pivetta (Victoria, BC) threw two perfect innings to set the tone for Team Red, who went on to defeat Team Grey 9-5 in an intersquad game at the Fall Instructional League Camp.

Team Red opened the scoring in the bottom of the second when Alex Calbick (Burnaby, BC) reached on a double and scored on a Brandon Dailey (Brantford, ON) error to take a 1-0 lead.

Dailey would make up for his miscue in the top of the third when Team Grey scored three runs to take a 3-1 lead. Dailey hit a two-run single to give his team the lead.

But Team Red responded in the bottom half of the inning putting four runs on the board to retake the lead at 5-3. Harris drove in a pair of runs on a double and Simon Brisebois (Mascouche, QC) added an RBI single.

Team Grey reduced the lead to one run in the top of the fourth inning on Cédrick Vallières’s (Roxton Pond, QC) RBI single.

After Team Red made it 6-4 in the bottom of the fourth, they put the game away in the bottom of the fifth by bringing three runs across the plate to take a 9-4 lead.

Dailey hit a solo home run to lead off the top of the sixth for Team Grey to make it 9-5.

On the mound, Pivetta got the start for Team Red and pitche two perfect innings, striking out two. Tom Robson (Ladner, BC) closed out the game for Team Red, pitching two innings and allowing an unearned run on two hits with a pair of strikeouts.

Tanner Spencer (Craik, SK) was the starter for Team Grey. He allowed an unearned run on two hits with one strikeout in two innings of work. Iannick Remillard (Valleyfield, QC) threw a scoreless inning for Team Grey, allowing one hit and a walk while fanning one.

The Junior National Team will play their first full squad game on Thursday, October 8th at 1 PM against the Washington Nationals.

 

Are you interested in receiving individual lessons on a one-on-one basis with Sask Baseball High Performance Director Greg Brons?

If you would like to get some help with your hitting, pitching, running or fielding, now is your chance to book sessions.

Cost:

$40 / hour for Sask Baseball Members

$75 /hour for Non-members or Affiliate Members

For more information contact Greg Brons.

HITTING, AGILITY & SPEED TRAINING AVAILABLE

Attention all Bantam and Midget aged players in the Saskatoon area.

Sask Baseball is looking to fill spots in our upcoming Hitting Instruction clinics at the Saskatoon Fieldhouse.

There will be 10 sessions in total for a cost of $90 / player. We are looking to fill openings in the Monday and Tuesday evening time slots from 9:30 – 10:30 PM.

Clinics begin the week of October 12th and a player will attend on the same day of the week for 10 weeks.

There is limited space available so if you are interested sign up fast!!!

There will also be video analysis to give players feedback.

For more information please contact Greg Brons.

Molleken

MOLLEKEN HELPS CANADA WIN BRONZE

Article by IAN HAMILTON – Leader Post
Photo courtesy DON HEALY

Dustin Molleken came back from the 2009 Baseball World Cup with a bronze medal, a sense of national pride, a pile of confidence … and a newfound hatred for pasta.

“I’m sick of eating that Italian food,” says a chuckling Molleken, a 25-year-old Reginan who helped Canada post a 6-2 victory over Puerto Rico in Saturday’s bronze medal game in Grosseto, Italy. “All we ate was baked lasagna and pasta.”

Molleken, a pitcher in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization, got the call in June to play for the Canadian team in the Baseball World Cup. He had played for Canada at a world junior championship in 2002, so he knew what it was like to wear the maple leaf in competition — and he was honoured to do it again.

“It’s surreal,” he says. “Every time I put on the jersey, it gave me shivers. I took so much pride to have on that jersey.”

Canada went 3-0 in the first round, a four-team round-robin pool, which was contested in Stockholm, Sweden. In the second round, held in cities around Italy, the Canadians lost their first two games before rattling off five straight wins to move on to the third round.

Again competing in Italian centres, Canada won its first three games before falling to Cuba in a semifinal. That put the Canadians in the bronze-medal game, and they came out of that contest with their best finish ever in the event.

“(The medal) is huge!” says Molleken, who threw two scoreless innings in that contest. “It’s heavy, too. It feels like it’s about six pounds.”

The 6-foot-4, 230-pound right-hander certainly pulled his weight in the tournament. Coming out of the bullpen, he surrendered no runs and seven hits over 11 innings of work.

“I just did my best,” he says. “All of my off-season training showed. I threw really well.

“(Team officials) were always happy and said, ‘You did an outstanding job for us.’ That pumps you up a little bit. It’s great to hear that.”

He’s hoping the Pirates heard about him, too.

Molleken — who split the 2009 season between two of Pittsburgh’s farm teams, the Class A Lynchburg (Va.) Hill Cats and the Double-A Altoona (Pa.) Curve — is looking for a new contract.

“I just hope to open up some more doors in the organization,” says Molleken, whom the Pirates selected in the 15th round (435th overall) of the 2003 MLB draft. “Now I’m a free agent, so this could help me resign with those guys or sign with someone else.” He’s hoping for the former. “I’m happy with the Pirates,” he continues. “I’m also happy in Double A because (major-league teams) are always taking guys up out of Double A. Guys in Triple A are usually older guys who have been up and down over the years. The guys in Double A are the top prospects.”

Molleken says he has had “some up-and down years” since starting down the road to the majors. He missed about 18 months of action after having Tommy John surgery in 2004 and a flare up in his right elbow in ’05.

Since then, though, things have been looking up. He says the speed of his fastball increased after the surgery — from a range of 88 to 92 miles per hour to its current range of 92 to 96 mph — and his sinker, changeup and slider also have improved.

“Since ’06, everything has taken off,” says Molleken, who suggests part of the reason is because he “grew up” in recent years. “I’ve also been healthy — and just getting at ’er.”