The Westlock Red Lions defeated the Edmonton Jays 11-2 last week at Keller Field, giving them a seven-game winning streak and a comfortable position going into the mid-season North Central Alberta Baseball League all-star break.
“It was a little bit of payback for us too; they beat us the first game of the year 4-3,” said the Lions’ Adam Sawatzky.
The Lions were not discouraged by the loss earlier in the season; they were quite confident going into Wednesday’s game against the 10th-place Jays.
“We don’t go into any game thinking we’re going to win, but we played a better game and got the result we wanted,” he said. “I think we executed everything well and played a fundamental game. This is a team we should beat and we did.”
It did not take long for the Lions to take a commanding lead, either. Pitcher A.J. Bosman shut down the Jays’ offence, with the first three batters failing to get on base.
In the bottom of the first, the Jays’ pitcher struggled, giving up three walks to load the bases, then giving up several hits that brought the runners home. At the end of the inning, the Lions made it once through the batting order and took a formidable 5-0 lead.
The Jays started to show some light in the second, with a walk, an error and a steal allowing the Jays’ Jesse Workman to notch one run for the visiting team.
The Lions weren’t to be outdone, however, scoring another three in the second to take an 8-1 lead.
Although the third and fourth innings saw little action in the way of scoring, there was nonetheless some excitement on the field when the Jays’ Daniel Grimard was thrown out of the game after screaming profanities at the base umpire.
The Jays rallied again in the fifth to score another run, but a comeback was not in the cards. The Lions notched another three runs in the sixth and shut out the Jays in the seventh, leaving the final score at 11-2.
Sawatzky said he was surprised to see a player thrown out of the game — something he doesn’t remember seeing for several years — and attributed the incident in part to the Jays’ inexperience.
“When I came into the league as a young guy, I was be humble and earn your way in” he said. “These guys all figure they’re owed something.”
Nonetheless, he spoke highly of the skill level of the players on the Edmonton team, for which this is the first season in the NCABL.
“They have talent,” Sawatzky said. “If they stick around the league for a couple years they’ll be a good team.”
The Lions spent their weekend at a tournament near Provost last weekend, and then will be off from regular league play this week for the all-star game.
They return to Keller Field for their next game, which is scheduled for July 26.
