A rare game-ending triple play sealed a 10-8 win for the Dust Devils (Red) over the Dust Devils (Grey) at Juan Teran Park on June 18. The teams are among three Pincher Creek squads competing in Chinook West Little League’s junior division, which includes players aged 13 to 16.

“It was one of the coolest things,” says Red team head coach Kevin Yaworsky. “That rarely happens in a baseball game.”

He says it was a great back-and-forth contest, with good hits and good pitching, that came down to the wire in the top of the last inning, before the triple play sealed the deal.

Grey opened the scoring before Red responded aggressively with five runs to take an early 5-1 lead after the opening inning. Down but not out, Grey responded with three runs in the second to close the gap to 5-4.

Red answered by keeping Grey scoreless in the third and increasing their lead to 7-4.

Grey scored twice in the fourth inning, but Red solidified their lead with four more runs to make it 10-6 heading into the fifth and final inning.

Scoring twice more at the top of the fifth, Grey made it a close game again.

With runners on first and third and nobody out, the potential tying runs were on base with the go-ahead run at the plate.

Then came the play Yaworsky has witnessed only once in more than a decade of coaching baseball.

Red team pitcher Levi Cottle delivered the pitch and batter Austin Kaupp hit the ball straight up.

Cottle caught it on the mound for the first out and threw to first baseman Xxavier Prairie Chicken for the second. Catcher Ridge Flundra caught the ball at home and tagged out the runner from third to complete the triple play and end the game.

“Everybody on our team was jumping in the air, and they were excited about it, and I was excited for them,” Yaworsky says. “I was quite proud of them.”

He says both teams played well throughout the evening.

“The other team, to be fair, they made some good plays, they had some really good hits,” he says. “They had some really good pitching on their team. So yeah, it was just a really good game to watch.”

In a social media post, Carlye Ouellette said that “according to Google, the odds of a triple play in any given minor league baseball game are roughly 1,400 to one, occurring approximately once for every 400 to 500 team games. This rare event requires the exact alignment of zero outs, at least two baserunners, a sharply hit batted ball and a baserunning or defensive error.”

In a season Yaworsky says had multiple games affected or cancelled due to weather issues, this game comes as a highlight for local baseball as the sport continues to gain traction in the community.