Saskatoon hosts 16U girls baseball nationals as sport’s popularity grows

For the first time in the team’s 10-year history, the Saskatoon Royals will host Baseball Canada’s 16U Girls National Championship.

The tournament is taking place at the ball diamonds at Saskatoon’s Nutana Kiwanis Park from Thursday through Sunday, with more than 160 players coming to the city for the three-day tournament.

“There’s 10 teams from 10 provinces across Canada competing for the national championship,” said Corey Lenius, the chair of the host committee for this year’s national championship.

He said girls baseball is been a sport that’s on the rise in Saskatoon.

“The Royals were founded 10 years ago with about 40 girls playing baseball, and this year we’ve had 350 playing baseball. The sport is growing, and we’re seeing that across Canada,” Lenius said.

“We’ve seen exponential growth. This was our best year we’ve seen since the Royals became a zone in the city. Girls baseball is absolutely blowing up right now.”

But the growing popularity of baseball isn’t just limited to Saskatoon. In fact, it extends across the province and the country.

Baseball Canada said in a statement that the number of girls who play baseball in Saskatchewan grew from 956 in 2014 to 1,832 in 2024. Nationally, that number jumped from 11,943 in 2014 to 26,905 in 2024.

Lenius said he’s been a bit surprised by how much girls baseball has grown in Saskatoon since the club launched.

“These girls all play hockey together and then they hear about the Royals and what baseball is like and they want to try it and come over,” he said. “I’m very happy with the growth of girls baseball in the city.”

The tournament gets underway at 9 a.m. on Thursday. The opening ceremony will take place later at 6 p.m. at Bob Bessel Field.

Saskatchewan plays its opening game against Manitoba at 7:30 p.m.

The gold medal game goes Sunday night at 6:30 p.m., with the closing ceremonies to follow.

Lenius said he’s excited to see all of the players from across the country compete on a big stage.

“If you want to come down and watch some great baseball, we have passes you can buy at the diamond,” Lenius said. “It’s affordable. Saturday we’re going to have Barry the (Saskatoon Berries’) mascot. We’ve got road closures, we’re bringing in bleachers, we’ll have a full concession.”