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The Rosalind Athletics will be making the move west for the upcoming 2015 baseball season, as an expansion team in the Powerline Baseball League.  At the PBL annual meeting on Thursday, the Powerline executive approved the A's application to join the neighboring league.

"In discussion for the upcoming season, it became clear that based on where the majority of players were living and working, we were going to have to see what our options were for current roster and going into the future" said A's player Sheldon Pederson.

"We loved our time in BRBL, but logistics forced our hand.  We're really looking forward to the challenge that PBL presents" added Steve Enright.

Obviously the history and tradition that Rosalind has with the Battle River Baseball League made the decision to leave quite difficult.  The heated rivalries with Heisler and Spring Lake have always brought out the best in all three teams, creating some memorable playoff series in recent years.  When the core of the A's was younger, match ups with Killam and Stettler proved to be roots for the prospects to build on.  Thank you to all past and present BRBL players and fans, we've appreciated being a part of the great tradition!

In the Powerline Baseball League, the A's will be joining the Camrose Roadrunners, Armena Royals, Bardo Athletics, Ryley Rebels, Holden Bluejays, Leduc Milleteers and the Beamount Angels.  The season kicks off in early May, so look for our new schedule to be released soon.  We're looking forward to it!!

After a big game two victory to tie the Battle River League Champion series, the Rosalind Athletics were eager to get to Heisler and try to take back the Championship Trophy after Heisler had emerged victorious the last two seasons. 

After a dominate performance in the Cold Lake tournament over the weekend, it was a no brainer to turn to Dan Enright to end the championship drought.  Althought not as sharp as his most recent performance, Enright provided a pitching performance definitely good enough to give the A's a chance to win.  Dan pitched out of a based loaded jam, in the second inning to keep Rosalind out in front 1-0.  Heisler was able to provide a few clutch hits that eluded the A's hitters, as Blaine and Cody Wolbeck were able to the extra base RBI hits the proved to be the difference in the game.  Matt Enright came on to close out the bottom of the 6th, and give the A's the chance to rally in the top of the seventh.

Offensively, the A's wrote their own story on this final day of the playoffs.  Adam Enright got the A's started in the first inning when he doubled to the left center gap, and Ryan Yuha drove him in with an RBI single.  After that, Nolan Miller proceeded to go through the Rosalind order at will, keeping the A's hitters completely off balance and inducing countless groundballs.  Suffice to say, the confusion and disappointment that followed post game made this loss a bitter pill to swallow with more questions than answers.  Hat tip to Nolan, that was an impressive pitching performance.

The Rosalind Athletics wanted to thank all the family, friends and fans that came out to support us during another playoff run.  Your presence is definitely appreciated.  So, to close out this season, once again,..."there's always next year."

The Athletics were facing elimination as game two was hosted in Rosalind on Tuesday night.  A capacity crowd was on hand to see a hard fought game last Thursday, but the weather took the game out of the players hands, and forced the postponement to Tuesday.  Last night, however, Mother Nature supplied perfect baseball weather and the teams put on an equally great display in the latest installment of Rosalind versus Heisler.

Ryan Yuha took to the hill, looking to extend the series, and win the pitching duel versus his cousin, Cory Martz.  A locked in Yuha is tough to beat, and Ryan was up to the challenge on Tuesday night.  With a strong defence behind him, Yuha battled and scattered 7 hits and 2 walks in a complete game victory.  Most importantly, Yuha worked out of a bases loaded jam in the second inning, and left runners at second and third in the third inning.

Rosalind took the lead in the bottom of the second inning, after three straight singles by Skip, Sheldon and Brett.  Clayton Harbak, renouned for his speed on the basepaths, started the bottom of the 4th inning off with a hard hit double to the left center gap, sliding into second just under the Heisler tag.   RBI singles by Brayden Benson and Nic Ronsko put Rosalind out in front 4-1.  The A's played small ball in the bottom of the fifth inning after Sheldon Pederson hit a double over the centerfielders head.  A sacrifice bunt by Bretty Yuha and sac fly by Harbak gave the Athletics the insurance run that they needed to secure the victory. 

The fans were treated to a truly elite display of defence in the top of the 7th inning, as lead off hitter Alex Badry hit a routine single.  With clown music playing in the background, the A's proceeded to throw the ball away at second....and third.....while leaving a home defenceless as Badry scored a highlight run.  It's an good thing the TSN crew wasn't in the park to catch the Worst Play of the Day.

The third and final game of the series goes Thursday in Heisler at 6:30.  Come out and watch some great baseball and one of the teams crowned league champions of the Battle River Baseball League.

Rosalind Athletics - 4

Cold Lake Cardinals - 6

Story and stats to follow...

Edmonton Athletics - 2

Rosalind Atheltics - 3

Stats and story to follow

The Rosalind Athletics travelled north to a new found tournament, billed as the "Northern Alberta Championships".  An alternative to Provincial Championships hosted by Baseball Alberta, the Cold Lake Cardinals wanted to host a club tournament, using only your regular season roster (ie. no all star pick ups) to find out which team really was the best of the north.

In game one of the tournament, the A's turned to Dan Enright to take on the host Cold Lake Cardinals.  The Cardinals have also entered Provincials, so it would be safe to assume that they had gathered a solid collection of talent to make a run this year.  To say that Enright was up to the challenge would be a understatement.  Dan Enright was on fire, having all three pitches in his arsenal working on command.  Enright didn't get the result that he deserved, as a VERY controversial call on a potential 3rd out at first base with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth inning was the only blemish on his scorecard.

So begings another chapter in the Rosalind Athletics versus Heisler Cardinals history.  These two teams have met in the finals of the Battle River Baseball League for the last 3 years.  With the first encounter going to the Athletics, and the last two Heisler was the prevailing team.  The teams have met twice during this season, the first at Heisler's tournament, the A's rallied with a late inning 5-4 win; while the regular season match up resulted in a 2-2 tie.

With a sparkling ERA throughout the season, its no wonder Rosalind would call upon Steve Enright to take to the hill to try to get take home field advantage away from the Cardinals.  Enright was cruising through the first 5 innings, before a series of unfortunate events led to a big inning for Heisler.

The second round of Battle River Baseball continued on Tuesday night in Rosalind, as the A's took on Spring Lake in game two looking to sweep the Lakers and move on to the finals for sixth straight year.  The weather throughout the day left sometime to be desired, and had the potential postponement in flux more much of the afternoon.  However, both teams were able to reach a consensus that they would give it a try and keep and eye to the skies.

Rosalind sent Steve Enright to the hill, coming off a very impressive outing in first round versus Killam.  Enright's ERA this season with the A's has been incredibly impressive, being regarded as somewhere between mystifying and a phenonmeon that can't be explained on Ripley's Believe It Or Not.  Through Over 25 innings of work this season, Enright has only given up one earned run.  I know, right?! Ridiculous.

Anyway, once again Steve was doing yomen's work on the mound, keeping the Spring Lake hitters off balance and inducing plenty of groundballs.  Aside from a few errors, Enright was never in serious trouble, giving up only 3 hits in his complete game 5-2 win.

Offensively, Rosalind spread out the offence with a few timely hits with runners in scoring position, as they put 5 runs on the board in 4 seperate innings.  Pitcher Graham Zimmer started for Spring Lake, using his fastball and splitter, the A's hitters piled up a season high 9 strike outs.  Ryan Yuha went 2 for 3 with an RBI, as did Sheldon Pederson helping tack on a couple insurance runs that proved to provide breathing room in the 7th inning.  The veteran "bash brothers", Mike Hilhorst and Kevin McDonald used their experience in the 4th inning to put the A's ahead and provide the winning runs.

The start date for the finals is currently uncertain, as the other semi final got rained out last night.  Heisler and Coronation will be playing game two, with the northern Caridnals leading the series 1-0.  Keep posted on the Athletics website and twitter feeds to find out when you can see the A's in action again soon.