Baseball PEI President Walter MacEwen and Executive Director Randy Byrne attended the 2018 Baseball Atlantic Annual General Meeting in Halifax, NS on 2 December 2018. Here are some changes that came out of this meeting that may/may not affect the membership of Baseball PEI:

• In 2019 and beyond, all Baseball Atlantic Championships at the 11U “AA,” 11U “AAA,” 13U “AA,” 15U “AA” and 15U “AAA” categories will permit each team taking part to pick-up two players from different teams from the same age and same or lower skill category within their own province to have on their roster during the Baseball Atlantic Championship.
  • The major reason for this is due to the timing of the event – mid-September – many teams are missing players due to hockey, school or other activities. This helps teams with that problem.
  • Please note 18U “AA” was not included, as pick-ups were already permitted at this category.
• Two instances came up prior to Baseball Atlantic Championships this year in that the host team also were the Provincial champions for their province, and therefore wished to be in the Provincial representative spot in the schedule (instead of the “host” spot). It was agreed that on the Baseball Atlantic schedules for 2019 and beyond, instead of listing the term “host,” the host team will be referred to as “Team #1” and the Provincial champion in the hosting province will be referred to as “Team #2” (unless the host wins the Provincial championship, and therefore will be referred to “Team #2” and the second-place team attending from the hosting province will be referred to as “Team #1”).
• There was discussion as to whether quarterfinal games should be re-inserted into the schedule for Baseball Canada National Atlantic 13U Championships for teams that finish second and third place in their pool upon the completion of the round-robin. By not having quarterfinal games, teams that lost two games on Thursday were out-of-contention by Thursday evening but still had to stay until Sunday (plus, the fields were empty with no games by 3 pm on Friday). By having quarterfinal games, even if a team loses two games on Thursday, they still have a chance to make a quarterfinal game depending on if they win on Friday and how the other teams in their pool finish. Therefore, it was agreed that Baseball Atlantic would recommend to Baseball Canada that quarterfinal games be re-inserted to the schedule for the Baseball Canada National Atlantic 13U Championships in 2019 and beyond.
• It was determined that in 2019, Baseball PEI, Baseball NS and Baseball NL will all be using the pitch count rules currently in place on Prince Edward Island (where, as long as the coach declares to the opposing team and the umpire that the pitcher will be facing their final batter, any pitches thrown after the threshold met during that at-bat will not count against their pitch count. For example, if at the 11U level, if a coach declares that this will be the final batter his pitcher will be facing, and the pitcher meets the threshold of 25 pitches and exceeds it during the course of that at-bat, when the pitcher comes out of the game, they will only be credited with throwing 25 pitches). Upon completion of the discussion, it was voted to adopt this rule for at Baseball Atlantic Championships (basically, at Baseball Atlantic Championships, they will be using the same pitch count rules as PEI does).
• A discussion took place in regards to the rule at Baseball Atlantic Championships that there is always one Championship game, which can and has led to scenarios where a team finished the round-robin 4-0 and lost in the final to a team that finished the round-robin 2-2 (i.e. what happened at the Baseball Atlantic 15U “AAA” Championships this year) Most in attendance felt this was not fair, and all in attendance felt there should be a Championship game. A motion was passed where tiebreaker games are removed from Baseball Atlantic Championships if multiple teams are tied with 2-2 records, and if a team that finished the round-robin 4-0 meets a team that finished the round-robin 2-2 in the Final, the 2-2 team must win two games on Sunday to become Baseball Atlantic Champion (if the 4-0 team wins the first game, they are declared Champion). As well, if a team that finished the round-robin 4-0 meets a team that finished the round-robin 3-1, there will be just one Championship Game and the winner will be declared Baseball Atlantic Champion.

For more information, contact baseball@sportpei.pe.ca. 

St. Peter’s Bay native Nathan Jones has signed a letter of intent to play Junior College baseball at Williston State College (https://wsctetons.com/index.aspx?path=baseball&&tab=0), starting in the fall of 2019.

Jones, who was a member of the 2018 PEI Youth Selects and 2017 PEI Canada Games team, is currently in his second year at Badlands Baseball Academy (http://www.badlandsbaseballacademy.com/) in Oyen, Alberta. The Grade 12 student has committed to play with the Williston State College Tetons, who play NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) baseball in the Mon-Dak Conference. Williston State is located in Williston, North Dakota.

Nathan Jones is an all-round player who has a big bat, is very sound in the infield, and has a great amount of potential as a pitcher. At the National level, Jones has excelled in the past. At the 2018 Baseball Canada Cup in Moncton, NB, Jones hit .364, and as a pitcher at the 2017 Canada Games, Jones pitched five innings, giving up no runs on two hits, walking two batters and striking out eight. As well, he was named a tournament all-star in the 2016 Ray Carter Cup (Baseball Canada National 15U Championships) in Summerside.

Baseball PEI congratulates Nathan and wishes him all the best in the remainder of the school year at Badlands and the upcoming year at Williston State College.