The Pembina Valley Orioles season game to a close Wednesday night after suffering a 11-5 loss to the St. James A's, who won the Manitoba Junior Baseball League best-of-five semifinal series 3 games to 1. 

"It was a tough start to the game. They hit the ball well. You have to give them credit. We were right in there and battled hard until the end there," said Orioles third base Tyson McConnell.

The visiting A's capitalized on a lead off triple in the first inning to jump out to a 1-0 lead. The second didn't fair well for the Orioles as St. James sent 10 batters to the dish with five of them coming around to score and Pembina Valley was in a 6-0 hole early. 

St. James would hit the sticks again bringing a three more across to increase their lead to 9-0 as they entered the bottom of the fourth. The Orioles wouldn't go down with out a bit of a fight in their half of the fourth. They were able to score all five of their runs in the inning, three of which were on a three-run home run by graduating catcher Justin Odlum. St. James replied with two of their own in their half of the fifth. 

"Just trying to put the bat on the ball, put a good swing on it, and it went out I guess," explained Odlum.

Ty Enns got the start on the bump for the Orioles and tossed an inning and a third before Seth Staple came in and finished the second and recorded two more outs in the third. Mackenzie Hamm took his spot on the hill and finished the third, fourth, and worked into the fifth before Branden Hatley finished the game. 

The Orioles finished the regular season in sixth place with a 9 and 15 record and then went on to take down the Altona Bisons in two straight in the MJBL's best-of-three opening round series and advanced to the semi's against the A's where they lost in four games.