National 22U Baseball Champion to be crowned in Stonewall

The 2023 Canadian National 22U Men's Baseball Championship will invade Stonewall in just under a week. 

This marks the first time in over 30 years that Canada's Junior Men's Baseball Championship will be crowned in Manitoba. The Interlake Blue Jays are one of the two Manitoban teams set to take part, and head coach Dave Meyers says the community is happy to host.

"From what I hear, it sounds like everyone is very excited to have such a big event right in town. Hopefully, it goes over really well," Meyers explains. "We hope there are people out to watch and the baseball is good."

The action begins on Thursday, August 3, with the Blue Jays playing their first game at 6:30 against Ontario after the opening ceremony.

Each team will play four round-robin games, with the top three teams in each pool (six total teams) moving on to the elimination rounds. Both first-placed teams get a bye into the semi-final.

The other Manitoban team involved is the MJBL Championship-winning Elmwood Giants; however, Meyers says they will probably look a little different.

"From what I understand, Elmwood cut some of their players and took some other guys from around the league. That's just not me, I just can't do that to players that I've coached all year," Meyers continues. "You hope to be good enough with your own players and not have to cut guys that paid their fees and were with you all year long. Cutting someone from your team to take someone else is a slap in the face, as far as I'm concerned."

Meyers says Interlake will have four additional players from other MJBL teams, but they didn't cut anyone to make that happen. While most teams in attendance will be league winners, they are allowed to bolster their roster with other players from their province. 

There will be eight teams attending the tournament; the two Manitoban teams, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Quebec, Prince Edward Island, and two teams from Ontario.

The head coach says this is his first time taking part in the 22U nationals, so he's not quite sure what to expect from the other provinces.

"I hope to be playing on Sunday. It's not a guarantee or anything. We're going to have to do well to play on Sunday, that's for sure. We have to just wait and see how that goes, but if we can play good baseball, we should be okay."

Meyers believes they will benefit from the experience they have playing together throughout the 2023 season. The four-day national tournament runs from August 3-6 in Stonewall.