By JOE McFARLAND

He has seen a lot of baseball over the last five days and, judging by the smile on his face, he couldn’t ask for anything more.

Baseball Canada Men’s National Teams head coach and director Greg Hamilton has tried to take in as many games as possible during The Road to Okotoks, sometimes running between Seaman Stadium and Tourmaline Field to catch parts of two games going on at the same time.

He admits his expectations were high going into the inaugural event and they have been met or exceeded in every way.

“The competitive nature of the event has lived up to everything we hoped for,” Hamilton said, who got his steps in and then some during the tournament.

“It’s compete first and compete for your program and what’s across your jersey, your teammates, and the energy level is just continuing to grow in a great baseball environment. It’s really exciting.”

Maybe the most impressive part in his eyes has been how the playing field has been level, with no team going undefeated during the round-robin and one pool even having four teams with 2-2 records.

“You just see the pride in each dugout every day and it’s just continuing to grow as we get deeper into the tournament,” the Baseball Canada architect continued. “It’s everything we’ve hoped for and then some.”

It also hasn’t hurt that Mother Nature has been very good to the tournament with sunshine and warm temperatures welcoming players, teams and fans each day.

Heading into Championship Sunday, Hamilton is excited to see who emerges from the semifinals – Dawgs Black, Vauxhall, Gulls Prep or Mississauga – and raises the Morneau Cup for the first time.

Which begs the question: what do you do for an encore when the event returns to Okotoks in 2027?

“It’s a little tweak here, a little tweak there, but the basic premise and concept has proven itself on and off the field,” Hamilton said.

“I think we have a very special event and it’s national in scale and scope – it’s just really, really exciting to be in the moment and look towards a bright future.”

THE DAILY RUNDOWN

Saturday started with a play-in round with the second and third seeds in each pool being re-ranked to face each other.

Jalen Jacob and Tobias Skopelianos drove in two runs each while Zach Barker hit a solo bomb to help the Ontario Blue Jays past the Victoria Eagles 7-3.

Max Nantais-Vlahovich tossed a complete-game for the Mississauga Tigers, allowing two runs on eight hits while striking out in a 3-2 squeaker over the Abbotsford Cardinals.

Kai Howard and Joseph Pereira homered as part of a five-run seventh to get the Etobicoke Rangers past the AHP Renegades 9-4. Jayden Kane led the way for the Renegades with a double, homer and two RBI.

And the combination of Zach MacDonald and Lucian Barker provided solid pitching for Sylvan Lake Gulls Prep, striking out four while getting all the offense they needed in a three-run third inning to get past the Ontario Terriers 3-1.

Then it was onto the quarters, where Gulls Prep had to get back to it quickly. Lucas Gensler was all over it, throwing six shutout innings and striking out four in a 5-0 win over the UBC Thunder. Bo Anderson led the offense going 3-for-3 with a home run and two RBI.

It was the Calum Andersen show for the Vauxhall Jets as they blanked the Ontario Blue Jays 2-0. The Calgary product threw a complete game one-hitter, allowing just two walks while striking out six. Easton Kitura scored both runs for Vauxhall.

A second-straight 3-2 win on the day for the Mississauga Tigers as they snuck by the Langley Blaze. Carter Celerian’s RBI single in the seventh inning proved to be the winning run.

And Louis-Charles Larouche and Cam Gerla each had a pair of hits as Dawgs Black won a tight 5-2 decision over Etobicoke. The Rangers actually outhit the Dawgs 7-6 during the game.

SUNDAY SCHEDULE

The Road to Okotoks has now led us to Championship Sunday which will start with some rankings games. Atlantic Frontier will take on the Ontario Kobras while Team Saskatchewan battles DT Selects.

Then the semifinals will take centre stage with Vauxhall facing Gulls Prep at 11:30 MT and Dawgs Black going up against Mississauga at 12pm MT.

The Morneau Cup championship game will start at 4pm MT.