A Moose Jaw Little League baseball team is vying for the chance to represent Canada in a national event in the middle of August.

The Moose Jaw Major AAA All-Stars have earned their spot in the 2022 Little League Canadian Championship in Calgary next week, after a decisive sweep of the North Regina Little League last weekend.

Head coach, Troy Turner says this is something the program has been working towards for the past few years.

“It’s something that we’ve built since the core group of our kids has been 7-8 years old, and they have been working six months of the year, grinding away aiming for this year just because we knew we had a stronger core group for this age year,” says Turner. “Definitely it’s very exciting and it’s something we’ve strived for and can’t wait to get there.”

The AAA All-Stars dominated the Regina-based team by scores of 12-0 and 8-3 to be crowned the Saskatchewan Little League champs and qualified themselves for the Canadian tournament.

“The game plan for that first game was to come out very strong and get ahead and keep squeezing the momentum out of them, and make sure we’re playing our game at our pace. Having that done in game one allowed us more breathing room in game two. Game two was more of a nail-biter and we had a plan in place and stuck to it and came out on the winning side.”

The tournament runs from August 4-12 as Little League programs from all across the country will embark to Calgary to compete to represent Canada in the Little World Series in Williamsport, Penn, from August 17-28.

Moose Jaw will have this week to practice and prepare, before leaving for Calgary on August 2.

“We’re going to continue on things that we’ve been working on keeping that momentum, keeping them energized, refreshed, and knowing the best is yet to come so we have to keep working on kids' mental side of the game.”

Upon arriving in Calgary, Moose Jaw will have a media day on August 2, and then on August 4 will kick off the tournament against Team BC at 11:00 a.m.

Team BC has yet to be announced, but Turner says the team will prepare the same as they have done all season.

“We know it’s going to be a battle until the end, and hopefully all that hard work pays off and we come out on the victors' side.”

If Moose Jaw was to win the Canadian Regionals, they would become only the second Saskatchewan team to do so, behind the 2002 North Regina LL. Turner says that though this is a big moment for the team and the city of Moose Jaw they will take it one game at a time.

Last week, the team held a BBQ fundraiser at all CO-OP locations around the city to help with costs associated with getting to the tournament, Turner says the support was more than they could’ve expected.

“It definitely helped that the CO-OP provided all the leg work going in with that. We came out with a very good number. It was definitely appreciative and it was a great turnout for it too.”

You can follow along with all the scores from the Little League Canadian Regional at www.littleleague.ca  and daily coverage from Discover Moose Jaw.