Reds teams tasted provincials

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The Strathmore Reds bantam double A baseball team got a glimpse of what it is like to compete at a provincial tournament over the weekend in Lacombe.
The young team began the tournament with a battle against the Lacombe Dodgers. The Reds started the game out very well, but it all went down hill after starting pitcher, Hunter Biskup, kept the game scoreless until the bottom of the second where the Dodgers made him pay. Jack Sauve came in relief and pitched really well, but the Reds struggled to get their bats going.
The team got some offence from, most notably, Game MVP Joe Furfaro who went three-for-three with four RBI’s, and Kadin Wilson who went two-for-three cashing in two runs, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough as the Dodgers won 15-5.
The boys knew going into Saturday that they had to win two games to have a chance at playing at semi-finals on Sunday.
“The Reds showed an immense amount of character in all situations, never showed any sign of giving up,” said Coach Darin Dunlop.
They were able to forget the debacle in Game 1, getting strong pitching from Connor Dunlop as they kept the Red Deer Braves in check, only allowing four hits over five innings. Ryan Orford led the way offensively going two-for-three with a double, while Nathan Bogstie pitched to perfection in relief to beat the Braves 11-3.
In the afternoon game, the club found themselves down 3-0 early to the Spruce Grove Sox, but countered with five straight runs to take a 5-3 lead.
However, the Sox would come back with two in the third and one in the fourth to take a 6-5 lead, but Reds would score five in the fifth inning to take a 10-6 lead and never looked back to take the game 12-6.
That set the team up for a date with the Camrose Royals in the semi-finals. Ben Slemp broke out of a slump going three-for-four on the afternoon with a dinger and four RBI’s, but that wasn’t enough. Camrose’s bats proved to be too much as the eventual provincial champs won convincingly 14-2.
“This Reds team has showed enormous improvement and grit throughout the season,” said Dunlop. “The Strathmore community should be proud of these young men and women as they are and will be a positive influence on the Strathmore community for years to come.”
As for the mosquito 1 double-A Reds, they went 1-2 at provincials in Wetaskiwin over the August long weekend, but considering that they didn’t medal, Coach Jeff Stender thought strong pitching was the strength of the team.
“The boys did extremely well,” said Stender. “Our pitching was extremely strong from the start of the season to the end of the season. The pitching kept us in the first game, kept us in the second game and we had one pitcher throw a complete game in the one we won.”
The boys lost the first one 12-11 to Sherwood Park, the second one 32-17 to Olds and the victory was 11-4 over Grande Prairie.
Meanwhile, the midget triple-A Reds were in Red Deer over the weekend and opened up with an 11-9 win over the Okotoks Dawgs before dropping consecutive losses to the Red Deer Braves were defeated in the quarterfinals by the Calgary Redbirds.