Westlock’s senior Red Lions are firmly entrenched in the playoffs and looking forward to seeing what damage they can do once the regular season ends.
With only a single make-up game scheduled for Monday evening in Fort Saskatchewan, the Lions sit with a 13-3 record and are in no danger of missing the playoffs, said manager Keith Szautner.
“We’re just waiting for the league to finish all their games so we can figure out who we play in our first-round playoff series,” he said.
Szautner said he figures the Lions will finish the regular season no lower than second place, depending on Monday’s result and the remaining games the St. Albert Cardinals have to play. As such, he said the possible first-round opponents are the Fort Saskatchewan Red Sox or the Spruce Grove Eagles.
However, no matter whom they line up against across the diamond, he doesn’t envision it being a quick and easy series.
“They’re all four very good teams,” he said. “I think any given night any one of those teams can win.”
With their first-round opponent still to be determined, the Lions are not worrying too much about their playoff run, Szautner said.
“It’s going to be a fun series no matter who we play,” he said.
“I like our chances against anybody, but having said that I think any of those top four teams could win as well.”
In the Alberta West Central Baseball Association, the top four teams qualify for the playoffs. The first round sees teams play a best-of-three series, with the winners advancing to the championship series.
With the regular season just about over, Szautner said the Lions are satisfied with their performance, even if they are still hungry for more.
“We’re pretty happy with it,” he said. “We played all the good teams tough and we’ve beat the teams we probably should have beat.”
Monday’s make-up game in Fort Saskatchewan is a rematch of the Lions’ July 25 game versus the Red Sox, which they won 7-3 on the road.
In that game, the Lions never trailed, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
After stretching the lead to 6-0 in the top of the third, the Lions gave back three runs in the bottom of the inning.
However, that was as close as the Red Sox got as the Lions’ defence held firm and the offence added one more run late in the game to round out the scoring.
Leading the way was Ryan Provencal’s complete game, Szautner said, as well as timely contributions on both sides of the ball.
“Our bats got us runs when we needed them, and we had good defence to keep the score at 7-3,” he said.
