By: Adam Morissette

Canadian Baseball Network

OTTAWA- Two Baseball Canada National Championships took place last week to kick off our championship season, and another is on deck for this week with the DQ® 13U National Western Championship running August 11-14 in Saskatoon.

The championship will be historical for Baseball Canada as it is the first of three Dairy Queen® Canada 13U sponsored national championship events that will take place over the next month.  In May, Baseball Canada agreed to a partnership with DQ® that sees fan favourite brand become the exclusive and title sponsor of the Rally Cap program and the naming rights sponsor of all three Baseball Canada 13U National Championships.

“This partnership with Baseball Canada is such a great fit for the Dairy Queen brand,” said Candida Ness, Dairy Queen® Canada Senior Director of Marketing back in May. “Everyone at DQ from our corporate staff to franchisees are excited to be part of developing and celebrating baseball in communities across Canada.”

On the field and beginning on Thursday, eight teams representing Canada’s four westernmost provinces will meet to decide a champion. Sask Five and Swift Current will join host Saskatoon as Saskatchewan reps, while South Central and North Winnipeg will represent Manitoba. Parkland and St. Albert are the Alberta representatives and a squad from Abbotsford is representing British Columbia.

The tournament marks the eighth consecutive year that a 13U National Western Championship has taken place and the second time ever that Saskatoon has played host.

British Columbia (Coquitlam/Moody) is the defending champions after winning the title in 2015 and has won four gold medals all-time at the event.

Fans can follow all of the action, pitch-by-pitch courtesy of Pointstreak Live Scoring!

To visit the DQ® 13U National Western Championship official website, where you’ll find schedule, roster and live scoring information, please click here.