CHAMPIONS!!
Little League Canada is proud to announce the 2016 Junior Canadian Little League Gold Medal Champions are the Lethbridge Jr. Giants out of Southwest Little League after a 12-2 victory over Medicine Hat on Thursday afternoon! The Jr. Giants will be representing Canada for the first time in the Jr. Little League World Series held in Taylor, Michigan. The inaugural Jr. World Series will start August 14th through the 21st.
Led by Head Coach Shayne MacInnis with his Assistant Coaches Clayton Braun and Don Aos, the Jr. Giants have had their most successful season in the history of their program.
“To coach a championship team to represent Canada is one of the highest accomplishments a Coach can be blessed with. I owe it all to my assistants and players. They have worked so hard for myself and the program this season by putting in the time, dedication and hard work. Our parents this year have been so supportive of the decisions we have made as coaches and that also goes a long way. The boys have gotten hot at the right time, we have been unstoppable offensively and this last week and we hope to continue to ride that wave. To win a championship, players need to make plays. We cannot rely on offense alone, and we have played clean defense and our pitching staff has done a tremendous job of limiting runs. We plan to carry this over in Taylor, Michigan. We come to win” stated Head Coach Shayne MacInnis
Lethbridge Southwest Little league finished the Junior Canadian National Championship with a 6-1 record. Their only loss was to Team Alberta (Medicine Hat). The Jr. Giants stepped up when they needed to and defeated their tournament contender and rival.
Offensively, the Jr. Giants led the JCLL’s in the six of the nine following team batting categories; Total Runs, Total Bases, Base on Balls, RBI’s, and Home Runs. Standout performances include offensive leader Skylar Braun, batting an unstoppable .517 with 29 RBI’s, 1 Home run and 15 Hits through 29 At-Bats. A Close second, Noah Wauters, swung a big stick hitting 3 Homeruns, 16 RBI’s with a .478 average.
The Junior Giants Pitching Staff had shut the door to opponent offensive production with only allowing 12 Earned runs through the entire tournament. Levi Abbot was the Giants workhorse posting a 0.89 ERA through 15.2 innings pitched with a perfect 5-0 record.
Directly relating Coach Shayne MacInnis’s quote “To win a Championship, players need to make plays” the Giants did exactly that by leading the tournament in fielding with a respectable .927 percentage.
Closing statements before departing for Taylor, Michigan, Head Coach Shayne Macinnis had this to say; “Many Coaches establish team goals at the beginning of their season, our goal being the host team was to play hard, battle relentlessly and let the cards fall where they fall. I believe in the process over the outcome, now with this championship under our belt we have taken care of the process thus far and will continue to strive for excellence. We have not arrived yet, I have let our players know that and they are all on the same page. We have business to take care of down south that the process will take care of.”
To follow and support your 2016 Jr. Little League World Series Team Canada(Lethbridge Southwest Little League) refer to http://www.llbws.org/llbbws/jlbbws/worldseries.htm for live game broadcasting and frequent tournament updates.
From Little League Canada, Little League Alberta, and the proud community of Lethbridge wish the Lethbridge Jr. Giants out of Southwest Little League the best of luck in the biggest week of their young baseball career lives thus far! Go Gettem’!!
