The Southeast A's Bantam AA squad fell just short in the provincial final 9-8 to the Lloydminster Twins in Unity this weekend.

Made up of only three second-year players and eight rookies from all over the Southeast corner of the province, the A's had a tough year in the regular season but didn't let their poor league standing hinder their performance at provincials.

On Friday, the team opened provincial play with a game against the Sask 5 Giants when the game ended with Kieren Stewart throwing out a runner stealing third base, for final score of 8-7.

"We started off putting up eight runs in the first three innings and we just coasted to an 8-7 win from there," explained A's Head Coach Trent Dorrance of the teams opening win in Unity.

Saturday morning the A's took an early 4-0 lead against the Muenster Red Sox and would watch that lead disappear with the Redsox scoring five runs. The A's would fall just short, losing 5-4.

"We battled right down to the final at-bat against Muenster. It was disappointing but good to see because the boys were mad they lost and excited at the same time that they would be going on to the playoffs."

In their second game on Saturday against the Lloydminster Twins, the A's came out to a slow start and were down 3-0 after the second. Scoring twice in the third and once in the fourth, things were all squared up at 3-3. The Southeast squad found themselves down three more in the sixth, until the bats came to life in the seventh that would see the A's pull ahead for the 7-6 lead. The Twins would tie the game at 7-7 where in extra innings, the A's offence would explode for five runs leading them to victory.

"Our bats were on fire and our pitching was lights out the whole tournament. We ended up first in our pool due to the best run differential and would play the Prince Albert Royals," Dorrance said.

The A's got an early jump in the game against the Royals going up 10-0 after two innings. The Royals bounced back in the sixth, but fell short as the A's would add two more and hold on for the 12-8 win.

On Sunday afternoon the gold medal game would feature a rematch between the A's and the Lloydminster Twins. Lloyd scored one run in the first and the A's answered with two runs in the second. The Twins would jump out to a 5-2 lead until the A's loaded up the bases in the fifth for Jessie Schill and Ben Thompson to both get double RBI 's. The back and forth continued after six innings where the A's led 8-7. A two run home run in the seventh inning would seal the deal for the Twins as the A's left the tying run stranded on first base when the game ended. The final score of 9-8 crowned the Twins with the gold medal, sending them to the Western Canadian Championships in Kamloops, BC.

"We only lose three players next season and towards the end of the season we really turned it on. Our errors went from many a game to almost zero and one of the biggest factors was our pitching, it got way better."

"Once they got some confidence and realized that they could compete on a provincial level, they turned it around," Dorrance concluded.

With a ton of experience and confidence gained, the A's should be a force to be reckoned with come next spring.