The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Burkee's Bedlam improved during their second trip to the National Slo-pitch championships in Lethbridge Aug. 4 to 7 as they finished eighth out of 32 teams. Last year in Niagara Falls they placed 15th. "Competition was higher than expected," said Chad Trumbley, manager of Burkee's Bedlam. "A lot more fierce than the Niagara Falls tournament." Their tournament ended after a quarter-final game against a Lethbridge team that handed them a 15-4 loss. Prior to that match, they lost to a B.C. team ranked number one, 13-4. "There's a reason they were the number one ranked team," Trumbley said. "Our bats went cold and they hit every inning." In the loss to Lethbridge, Trumbley felt the team carried their disappointment from the B.C. loss into that one, but still managed to have a few solid innings. "We had a lot of fun," he said. The B.C. team told Trumbley they were one of the toughest teams to face. "It was surprising to get a compliment like that," Trumbley said. Burkee's Bedlam qualified for the playoffs in National's after playing four round robin games and earning a record of 3-1. Because of their finish in Nationals, they were faced with having to qualify for that tournament, which will be held in Langley, B.C., from Aug. 3-6, by being successful in provincial action. That happened as they went to provincials in Winnipeg instead and placed fourth. In the playoffs, they were forced to play the Dirty Dozen, another Flin Flon/Creighton team, which they didn't want to play until the final. They defeated their local counterparts 19-4 and then Ball's and Pie's 14-7. It was the Evil Empire that ended their tournament in the semi-final, 10-9. "We were down 9-3 and tied it in the top of the seventh," Trumbley explained. "They won it with the last bat and two outs on a single." Burkee's Bedlam chose not to attend the Saskatchewan provincials because they felt it was more important to play in the Jack Hanna Memorial tournament during the end of August. While they will have a long distance to travel, they can feel some comfort in the fact that S.W.A.T, who won the Saskatchewan provincial title, is playing as well. To have better results in Langley, Trumbley said his team plans to play in more out of town tournaments to learn how to adjust to different pitching. "We found that pitching (during Nationals) is incredible," Trumbley explained. "Slo-pitch is an offensive game. Eighty to 90 per cent, you have to score 10 runs a game to win."
