The Border All-Stars rallied together as a team of random members to capture the Western Canada Senior AA Baseball Championship this past Sunday in Moose Jaw.

Because of outside factors, the All-Stars were comprised not only of members from the Border Baseball League, but also players from Winnipeg and Brandon that came together to form a team that defeated the St. James A's 5-4 in the final game.

"We kinda threw a squad together at the last moment," chuckled coach Brent Laverty. "When you have a bunch of guys like that, you never really know what the outcome is going to be. In the end, everybody banded together and played really great ball throughout the weekend."

After opening round robin play with a 15-9 win over the Saskatoon Pirates on Friday afternoon, the All-Stars found themselves on the losing end of a 15-2 game against St. James on Saturday.

"We seem to have battled St. James quite a bit over the last few years," Laverty acknowledged, noting that the two teams also played in last year's final at this tournament. "They're a really good, deep team. They have a lot of great hitters."

Border was able to recover from the loss to shut out the host Moose Jaw Padres 8-0 on Saturday night, punching their ticket to the finals and a rematch with St. James. In that final game, Border scored three runs in the 3rd inning, and managed to hold off the A's as they scored another 3 in the 5th to bring the game to 5-4. The A's also threatened in the 7th with a runner on base, but Border's pitching shut the door to clinch the championship.

"Our pitching was so great in that final," said Laverty, who also credited timely hits and players accepting and playing their own roles as keys to the team's tournament success.

The timing of the tournament was certainly interesting, as many of the players on the All-Stars have recently competed against each other in the Border Baseball League playoffs, and the final series between Morden and Baldur currently ongoing. Laverty observed that the players were able to put aside club differences to come together for the tournament well. "When everyone gets together, you seperate the in-season competition from being able to compete together to try and win a championship."

The players will now return to their clubs to finish off Senior AA action for the summer. Game 2 of the Border Baseball League final goes this Friday in Baldur, who are shaking off a 17-3 loss to Morden last week. Meanwhile, some of these players will also be playing in the Baseball Canada Senior AA National Championships, which start August 23rd in Victoria, BC.