Andie Hidlebaugh (left) and Elly Kerluke (right) represented Nipawin when they suited up for the U21 Saskatchewan Women's Baseball team during the Invitational Championships in Ottawa (Facebook/Darryl Gershman).

By Aaron Schulze

Nipawin Representing Saskatchewan

Two Nipawin girls playing a role in a developing Saskatchewan U21 baseball team

Aug 15, 2019 | 12:56 PM

The Saskatchewan U21 Women’s Baseball team has returned from the Women’s Invitational Championships in Ottawa, and the northeast was well represented.

Andie Hidlebaugh, an 18-year-old outfielder, and Elly Kerluke, a 17-year-old pitcher and infielder, are both from Nipawin and were the only Northeast Saskatchewan representatives on the U21 Saskatchewan team.

Team Saskatchewan may not have had the most successful record at the Invitational Championships – going winless in four games – although Hidlebaugh was able to take away key experiences from the tournament in Ottawa.

“We played in a semi-pro stadium, so it’s probably the most massive stadium I’ll ever play in,” Hidlebaugh told northeastNOW. “The fields were absolutely beautiful, the volunteers were amazing, and I started three out of four games, which is a lot more playing time than I got last year with the U21 team.

“To go to a national tournament like that was absolutely amazing, even though we didn’t have the showing that we might have wanted to, we have the core group of girls that we can develop and take until we’re 21. Hopefully by the time I’m 21 we can get that gold medal.”

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Despite playing in a U21 tournament, Team Saskatchewan is a relatively young bunch. They only had one player who’s 19 or older and had two 16-year-olds going up against women across the country who play for the Canadian national team.

As 2019 was only the second year the Saskatchewan U21 team played in the Invitational Championships, Hidlebaugh believes the coaches are attempting to start with a younger team that will develop into a juggernaut when most of the players are 19 and 20.

“I didn’t know about the program too much,” she said. “When I tried out, these girls had been playing with each other for years and I’m a softball player. I was actually really surprised last year when i made the team, because I had not come from a baseball background, it was always softball.”

For three years prior to making it on Team Saskatchewan in 2018, Hidlebaugh played softball for the Melfort Spirit program. She took a year off from softball to play boys’ midget baseball in Nipawin before trying out for the U21 women’s team.

Getting used to playing with boys wasn’t the biggest learning curve for Hidlebaugh, as she grew up with them throughout her life and had four other girls on the Nipawin boys’ team. The challenge was getting used to batting in baseball compared to softball.

“I have never seen a curveball curve that much until I came to baseball,” she said with a laugh. “Sometimes in my first year, the pitchers would make me look dumb because I would think [the ball] was coming at my head and it went down right to the middle of the plate, because I just wasn’t used to a curveball.”

With adjustments from softball to baseball out of the way, Hidlebaugh looks forward to her future with Team Saskatchewan. She’ll be moving to Saskatoon at the end of August to pursue an arts and science education at the University of Saskatchewan, which means she will be closer to fall ball games and winter training compared to the monthly three-hour drive from Nipawin.

Along with having a fellow Nipawin local and friend on the team in Kerluke and with another one potentially on the way in Kira Comfort – an outfielder on the U16 Saskatchewan Women’s Baseball team – Hidlebaugh is excited and chomping at the bit to win a gold medal before her two years of eligibility with the U21 team is up.

“I just feel blessed in my life to have the opportunities I have,” she said. “For me, my father passed away in 2015 and it during the day after my provincial final game, and I wasn’t able to attend. We lost in the provincial title and I always said ‘Dad I’m going to win the provincial medal for you.’ The next year, our hockey and softball teams ended up winning a provincial title.

“Everything I do is in representation of him. Hopefully I’ll be able to win a national title some day in the future for him and my mom.”

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow