BIG TOURNEY
Cape Breton Sooners to challenge for Canadian Junior League Little title next week
Sydney Sooners to compete at junior Little League nationals in Lethbridge.
Playing baseball on a national stage is something Joshua Musial has thought about his entire life.
The Glace Bay native has played ball for many years but has never reached a prestigious Canadian championship tournament in his career, but that will soon change.
The 14-year-old centre-fielder will suit up for the Cape Breton Sooners next week at the 2018 Canadian Junior Little League Championship in Lethbridge, Alta.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to play for a Canadian title and hopefully win it,” said the soft-spoken Musial. “It’s something I constantly think about and something I’m really looking forward to be a part of.”
The Sooners, a district team made up players ages 13-14, earned their spot in the national tournament, sweeping Lancaster, N.B., in the best-ofthree Atlantic championship earlier this month – winning games 15-0 and 15-1.
Head coach Ricky Wiseman doesn’t know what to expect when the team takes the field in Alberta, considering the club hasn’t really been tested this year.
“We’ve played a couple of teams locally and we played New Brunswick, who was weak, and we played in a bantam tournament last weekend and played well,” said Wiseman, who’s coached in many national tournaments.
“On a national stage, I don’t really know what we have – I couldn’t really tell you because I really don’t know how good we are.”
Wiseman believes the team’s best assets heading into the tournament are its defensive play and offensive ability.
“I think we have a talented team,” said Wiseman. “Last weekend they hit the ball really well, so we’re hoping that will continue in the tournament.”
Five players on this year’s Cape Breton team played in the national tournament last season with the Sydney Sooners,
something Musial hopes will benefit the club.
“They’ve told us stories about the tournament and they certainly have us hyped up for it,” said Musial. “We’re a hardworking team and we don’t make many mistakes in the field and if we can keep that going we should do all right.”
The Sooners will be joined in the tournament by the host Lethbridge Jr. Bulls, Medicine Hat All-Stars (Alberta), Fraser Valley (British Columbia), Mirabel Diamond Academy (Quebec) and East Nepean (Ontario).
Cape Breton begins the tournament on Sunday when they play the Quebec representative at 3 p.m. Atlantic time. They play a total of five round-robin games.
“Two wins should get you into the semifinals,” said Wiseman, noting Saskatchewan doesn’t
have a team in the tournament this year.
“As coaches we have to go to the field and find two games that we think we can win and gear our pitching towards that and that game plan has worked successfully in the past.”
Aside from playing games, the team has been preparing for the tournament by practicing each week in both Glace Bay and Sydney.
“We try to prepare them for what they may face, but some have never been there before, so we’ve done all we can do to prepare them for this tournament,” said Wiseman, who mentioned his pitchers haven’t been pushed too hard yet this season.
“Some games are going to be really tough, but you just have to go with the flow and find the games you can win – we’re shooting for the semifinals and
if we can get that far it’s a successful year.”
As for Musial, he’s confident in the team’s ability to win the tournament.
“I feel like we can compete with all the teams out there in the tournament,” said Musial. “I don’t want to go out there just for a trip, I want to be competitive and win.
“It would be an awesome experience to represent my country and hopefully, we can do that.”
The tournament semifinals will take place Aug. 4, while the bronze medal and championship games are slated for Aug. 5.
The winner of the national event will represent Canada at the 2018 Junior Little League World Series in Taylor, Mich., Aug. 11-19.