They fought hard, but in the end, it wasn't meant to be for the Moose Jaw Canucks this season.

The local squad hosted the 2015 Baseball Sask Midget AA Provincial Championship over the weekend and battled their way into the semifinal on Sunday afternoon, but that's where their season ended.

Moose Jaw lost 5-2 to the North East Red Sox in the semifinal at Blackwell Diamond. The Red Sox went on to beat the Weyburn Beavers 11-2 to claim the provincial title.

“They had to throw their best to beat us, they did and he's quite the pitcher and that was the difference in the game,” said head coach Kevin Smith. “They threw their ace and that's what they wanted to do, they kept him for us and it worked out for them this weekend.”

The Canucks' only offence came in the top of the fifth inning when Dawson Kurz smoked a two-out two-run home run to centerfield that pulled Moose Jaw within three, but they couldn't mount a comeback.

North East starting pitcher Logan Casavant shut the door from there, striking out the side in the sixth and then sitting down the Canucks in order in the seventh to seal the win.

“We fought the whole game, just one bad inning cost us the game,” said catcher Jordan Logan, who was playing his final game in a Canucks' uniform.

The Canucks showed great resilience to get into the semifinal game after losing their tournament opener on Friday to Weyburn, they responded with two wins on Saturday that gave them second in their pool.

Moose Jaw and North East had battled back-and-forth throughout league play all season and the Red Sox struck the final blow in the battle on Sunday in front of a large crowd on the west side of the city.

“Our goal was to get to Sunday,” said Smith. “We played one of the top teams in the province and probably one of the best pitchers at this age in the province and just fell a little bit short.”

Casavant allowed just one hit – which was Kurz's home run – and struck out 14 in the masterful complete game performance.

Smith said they knew they were in for a tough test against him.

“He throws all strikes, so you've got to get up there hacking and unfortunately we didn't get the key hit when we needed them,” he said. “A key hit here or there and then a break and maybe we turn the tables a little bit.”

The loss doesn't diminish what the Canucks were able to accomplish during the 2015 season as they finished first in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League's Midget AA division during the regular season with a 19-3 record. They lost to Weyburn in the semifinals at the league playoffs last weekend.

“For where we were three years ago when we had guys that had never played baseball before to now, it's awesome,” said Smith.

Logan, who will be graduating from midget baseball, said he couldn't have asked for a better final season.

“It was lots of fun this year,” he said. “The guys were all good, coaches were awesome, everything was perfect, it was a fun year.”