Despite arriving as the last-minute substitute for Manitoba, South Central put in a strong showing at the Western Canada 18U AAA Baseball Championship in North Vancouver. South Central made it to the finals against the Coquitlam Redlegs, but lost in the championship to settle for silver.

South Central placed 3rd at the provincial tournament in the last weekend of July, falling to the eventual tournament champion Bonivital. Pembina Hills was set to be the Manitoba representative at the Westerns as they were the provincial runners-up. However, many of their players also played for the Midget AA Portage Pirates, who were set to compete at the Western Canada AA Championships in La Broquerie this past weekend. With so many players unavailable from that squad, South Central was tapped to take their place at the tournament.

Brent Unrau, head coach of South Central, noted that given these circumstances, "to be one of the top two teams is a pretty respectable finish. It's a pretty high calibre of ball." Unrau also noted the mix of experience in his squad as a key obstacle at the outset of the tournament, with some players having played lots in inter-provincial competition, while others had never played outside Manitoba.

Even South Central had some difficulty assembling a team for the competition, losing players to other commitments. The team was able to rely on pick-ups from other teams to supplement the roster. In addition, three of the players had come directly from the Canada Cup championship in Moncton that had wrapped up two days before the start of the Westerns, leaving them little time to reset before the competition. Unrau appaluded the commitment of his players. "Kids gotta love baseball," Unrau admired. "Some of the kids are playing on five different teams."

South Central opened the tournament with a 9-3 at the hands of the eventual champion Coquitlam. This loss meant that the team had to win out in the rest of the round robin play to have a shot at the finals. That's exactly what the team did, as they gutted out two narrow wins against the Saskatoon Giants and the Calgary Dinos Black, before winning a lopsided 11-1 decision against the host North Shore Twins.

This win set them up with another tilt against the Redlegs, but South Central ran out of gas in the final, as they were unable to muster up a run in a 7-0 final loss.

Coach Unrau claims the key to the silver medal was the team's quick bonding with new members and players assuming new roles. "The group was a really cohesive group," he observed, noting that some of the players were competing against each other on other teams not that long ago.