B4 July 24, 2013
Estevan Mercury
Bienfait’s Dylan Lafrentz, hitting for the Weyburn Beavers, watches a pitch sail by late in Monday’s Western Major Baseball League game against the Yorkton Cardinals at Lynn Prime Park
Beavers top Cardinals in Estevan game
It was a home game away from home for the Weyburn Beavers, but that didn’t seem to bother the Western Major Baseball League club on Monday, as they defeated the Yorkton Cardinals 5-3 at Lynn Prime Park. It was a key contest, as the Beavers now sit three and a half games ahead of the Cardinals for third place in the East Division. The WMBL, which includes teams from Sas-
katchewan and Alberta, is comprised of college players who come up to Canada to continue playing in the summer. With Estevan having the population base and facilities to potentially support a WMBL team, the game acted as a showcase of sorts for the market. It had been originally scheduled for June 10, but that game was rained out. Members of the 2008 KPC Blazers, who won the Western Canadian midget
AAA championship, were honoured before the game. The Beavers’ roster includes two players from that team: Benson pitcher Kris Keating and Bienfait outfielder Dylan Lafrentz. Weyburn took the lead in the first inning on a two-run double by Chris Manning, driving in Michael Lukkason and Ryan Bourcier. In the third, Spencer Mallonee added to the lead, coming home on a groundout. The Cardinals got on
the board in the fourth, with Kameron Mizzell hitting a sacrifice fly to score George Santiago. The score remained 3-1 until the eighth inning, when the Beavers tacked on some insurance. Manning doubled again to bring in Bourcier, and Spencer Kidder hit a sac fly to score Manning. Weyburn would need those runs, as Yorkton scored two of their own in the top of the ninth. Ben Grillo led off the
inning with a double, then scored on a triple by Dylan Gross. Gross later scored on a groundout to first base. Lafrentz batted eighth in the order for the Beavers, going 1-for-3 with a strikeout. Manning led the team, hitting 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run. Ben Grillo batted 2-for-4 with a run for the Cardinals. Beavers starter Ben Moore threw seven strong innings, allowing one run,
scattering six hits, striking out three and walking three. Daniel Brown came on for the eighth, allowing two runs on three hits, three strikeouts and a walk. Kidder closed out the ninth, allowing one hit. For Yorkton, starter A.J. Martinez also went seven innings, allowing three runs on nine hits, three strikeouts and three walks. Jeff Pool came in to work the eighth, surrendering two runs on one hit and a strikeout.
Haulers’ repeat bid fizzles at provincials
Away from the confines of home, the Estevan Sherritt Coal Haulers failed to defend last year’s provincial bantam AA title on the weekend, falling short of the playoffs in North Battleford. After winning it all in 2012 at Cactus Park, the Haulers posted a 1-2 record at this year’s provincials. “We only had three or four guys who really hit consistently on the weekend and you’re not going to win it with three or four guys. We needed all 12 guys hitting,” said Haulers head coach Kent Phillips. Phillips, who was part of last year’s provincial championship club, said he noticed the Haulers’ play had fallen off a bit recently, but was at a loss to explain it. “Our hitting let us down at provincials. We just didn’t hit the ball like we did at the start of the year. “We saw that coming in the last month of the season. We didn’t dominate like we did at the start of the year, and I don’t know what happened. We didn’t change anything as far as our routine went, as far as our practices went. We still did lots of batting cage, lots of live cage, batting on the diamond. Why it changed, I have no idea.” The Haulers began with a disappointing 7-6 loss to the Moose Jaw Mallards, a harbinger of things to come. The Mallards finished last in the Baseball Regina bantam AAA di-
vision this year at 2-18, while the Haulers topped the standings at 12-1. Estevan started the game well, building a 5-0 lead through the top half of the fourth inning. “With the pitch count the way it is, my starting pitcher had 50 pitches in three innings and we were up 5-0, so I figured, well, I don’t want to burn up a pitcher the very first day,” Phillips said. “We pulled him and between the pitchers and the umpire, we couldn’t find the strike zone and we gave up a lot of walks and next thing you know, it’s a tie ball game.” Moose Jaw would score three runs in the bottom of the inning and three more in the sixth before scoring the winning run on a walk in the bottom of the seventh. “We just didn’t capitalize when we needed to with the hitting. We scattered hits here and there, but not enough to consistently score anybody. We left a lot of guys on base,” said Phillips. The Haulers lost 4-2 to Lloydminster in their second game on Saturday. Phillips said starter Josh Brown “pitched an amazing game” and “did an awesome job on the mound for us,” but it wasn’t enough against a strong opponent. Brady Third came on in relief. “Lloydminster’s a very good hitting team and to hold them to four runs is pretty impressive. I believe all the runs we gave up were
on errors, so take some errors out of the equation and it’s a different story.” Lloydminster plated two runs in the second inning, one in the fourth and one in the seventh. The Haulers had one in the first, with leadoff hitter Kyle Sargent coming around to score, and another in the bottom of the seventh. “Pitching was definitely the story there. We had a couple of timely hits to score a couple of runs on them, but not enough. The team they’ve got, in my opinion, they shouldn’t even be in AA provincials because they draw from Alberta, so they should be AAA.” The Haulers earned their lone win with a 3-1 walkoff victory over Melfort in their last game. “Carson Perkins
pitched a beauty of a game,” said Phillips. Dalton Loustel came in to get the final out after Perkins reached his pitch count limit. Third came in to score in the first inning on a fielder’s choice by Perkins,
getting the Haulers on the board. After that, the pitching on both sides shut the door until the sixth inning, when Melfort tied the game on an RBI double. Perkins ended the game with a walkoff double,
bringing home Third and Nate Smart. “The hitting was timely (in that game),” Phillips said, but it was too late. The Haulers will play league playoffs this weekend in Regina.
Little wins bronze with volleyball squad An Estevan volleyball player was part of the Saskatchewan Green team that claimed the province’s first boys medal at the Western Elite Volleyball Championship in over 20 years on Sunday. Kale Little was a member of the squad, which earned a bronze medal in the 17-and-under category of the tournament, that was held at the University of Regina. Saskatchewan earned a hard-fought,
four-set victory over Manitoba White in the bronze medal game, winning 27-25, 25-22, 31-33, 25-22. Of 26 players on the Sask. Green roster, Little was the only one from the southeast region. B.C. Red won the gold medal, defeating Alberta White 19-25, 25-22, 25-21, 17-25, 15-11. The Saskatchewan White team took out Manitoba White 25-21, 23-25, 25-18, 26-24 to take eighth place.
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