NEWS PHOTO SEAN ROONEY - Ethan Boutkan (left), Drew Niwa and Wyatt Bergen pose with Medicine Hat Big League Baseball president Lovell McDonnell after an awards banquet Wednesday. The trio of Moose Monarchs players graduated from the program.
Ask Skyler Stromsmoe to rattle off the record of any of the teams he played for in his baseball career and he’s going to draw a blank.
That was the advice the coach of the Medicine Hat Moose Monarchs gave to his players at the Monarchs and K of C Knights’ annual awards banquet Wednesday – a sentiment particularly important for the three graduating players.
“The memories that they’ve created, the friendships, they’re going to look back at that and not going to remember the stats, not going to remember the record,” said Stromsmoe, who had eight years as a pro plus time with Canada’s national team. “They’re going to remember the good times they had in Spokane, or going to the movie… they’ll look back and say it was a fun summer.”
While Ethan Boutkan, Drew Niwa and Wyatt Bergen might know now their team went 8-32-1 overall in 2019, what’s more important is the cliff diving, the late nights on the bus and the friendships they’ll have as a result.
“Just being with the team, stuff we did as a team this year,” said Bergen, who’s going to focus on an engineering degree going forward. “It was definitely tough some times, when you had that many guys missing, short on the bench like that. It showed what we’re made of this year.”
The Monarchs didn’t qualify for the Montana-Alberta American Legion State Tournament, decimated early in the summer by injuries. That meant everyone had to come together even when the scores weren’t on their side.
“Every day you try to battle,” said Boutkan, who will return to Brescia University in Kentucky for his sophomore season this fall. “With the injuries at the start of the season we knew it was going to be tough off the bat. We became really close, made memories that will last for a long time.”
Niwa only had one year with the Monarchs before graduating, but made the most of it, earning rookie of the year honours. He’s also going to pursue an engineering degree, and said it was a great summer.
“We beat some pretty good teams,” said the 18-year-old, whose favourite team memory was cliff jumping at a lake in Coeur d’Alene.
Reese Whelen was the Monarchs MVP, batting .283, leading the team in hits and even named the hardest worker as a regular pitcher to boot. Bergen was the unsung hero winner, doing a bit of everything as well. Other winners were Tory Nelson (most dedicated), Heyden Harrison and Joel Herron (top pitchers).
The Knights had a similar storyline, minus the injury problems. At 13-23 they made some noise by getting to the final day at the North District A tournament they hosted.
Evan Morrison was the MVP, his bat doing the talking on a regular basis. Payton Eddy was both top pitcher and hardest worker, the latter award shared with Cole Rath. Cale Ferguson was the Ken Stefani Memorial winner for most improved while Carter Krauss was the unsung hero winner.
