All season long, head coach Paul Vaillancourt has insisted this senior boys baseball team was special and were the odds-on favourites to win the championship.

The Cochrane Crush proved him right with a decisive 12-6 win over Foothills to claim the Calgary District 3 senior boys AAA championship here in Cochrane, June 28.

The game ended after Foothlls sixth bat was fruitless and the Crush couldn't be caught. Foothills did score two runs in the top of the first but the Crush responded with three, leading off their hitting with a bunt by Dawson Laye. The Crush kept building their lead to force a mercy ruling. In the league, runs are capped at five per inning per team.

During the playoffs, the Crush were preserving their best pitching arms and came into the game with their four aces rested and eligible to play.

"Our four best pitchers were ready to go, so my job was to see who was in the zone," says Vaillancourt, "and I can tell you all four were yesterday."

On the other side of the equation was the hitting.

"They were pumped. They were ready to rip the cover off the ball."

Mercy wins have been common for the Crush. With this win, they have beaten each team at least once in this fashion, says Vaillancourt.

"This team we had only beaten 16-14 in a close game, but we sure got them back yesterday."

The Crush had a near perfect season, losing only one game to the Bow Ridge Rays and they avenged that in the playoffs with a 13-7 mercy win that opened the door to hosting the championship game.

Still, Vaillancourt doesn't regret the one loss.

"Sometimes you learn more from a loss from a victory, so that loss early on kind of helped me focus the guys a little bit."

Vaillancourt has been coaching the same core of players since they came together in the major ball division, the first year of rep teams, and over the years has taught them the ins and outs of the sport.

"That first year we had a perfect season and won the championship and it's now the third one in five years with the same core group of guys. Now what's really fun about these guys is they can execute all the strategies of baseball and we've got some great athletes."

The Crush will be competing in the Little League Divisional Championship in Edmonton in mid-July and the winner of that advances to the Canadian Little League Championship being hosted by Calgary.

With some key players on holidays during the divisionals, Vaillancourt is uncertain how they'll fare.

"It's not our full team. I'm missing a few good players so it may be a little tougher, but that's the way it goes."

Next year will be the core group's last year of minor ball together.