Usually when Yorkton's Logan Calanchie takes to the pitcher's mound on the baseball diamond, he's usually on it for five, six, maybe seven innings.
Sometimes more.
He's won a few games doing it too.
However when his Alexander's Mens Wear Yorkton Junior Cardinals headed to the 2010 National Championships of AAA Junior baseball in Trois-Rivieres, QB., he went 13 innings while playing against Nova Scotia.
"That's as good a pitching performance as I've seen in a long time," offered Calanchie's coach Gary Lamb.
"He pitched unbelievable."
Calanchie played the equivalent of nearly two full baseball games compared to league play in the Regina Junior league and the South East Senior league.
Calanchie didn't get the win in Quebec but that's not quite the point.
He pitched close to two full games and by the sounds of it, he had no intention of handing off to the Cardinals' bullpen.
"In that game, we played so well. It's unbelievable how well Logan pitched," insisted Lamb of Calanchie's effort against the east coasters.
"I loved it," explains Calanchie upon the Cards' return home in the middle of last week. "(But) by the end of it, I was ready to go home," he admitted.
He said he's used to playing six or seven solid innings either at home at Jubilee Park or on the road somewhere in the area, but to go 13 innings straight and being so far away from familiar surroundings, your left with nothing but some guts and grit, he insists.
"I usually go the distance but when the game goes on that long, it's adrenaline running through (your veins)."
He said it was one of those games that featured several opportunities to end the game, including opportunities in the seventh and 12th innings where Nova Scotia had runners in scoring position, or the bases loaded.
"Your focus (then) is on how this is going to end. We had situations where we could have won it too."As the game went on, his desire to keep going kept getting stronger, according to Calanchie.
"I've never seen myself pitch 12 innings. I was ready to go. It's all adrenaline."
He said he was pleasantly "surprised" at how long he was able to play.
"That was by far, the best game I've ever pitched."
Calanchie has played an awful lot of baseball over the past several years. The nationals, which were held at Trois-Rivieres, QB., was a new experience for him, as well as about 98 per cent of his teammates, but apparently he showed no jitters.
Calanchie's dad said the game went just over four hours. Logan threw five strikeouts in the game and a total of 141 pitches.
He also assisted on seven Nova Scotia outs.
Out of the 49 batters faced, he only walked three.
Coach Lamb told the paper it was one of the best pitching performances he's ever seen. He said the team made a note to bring a bigger bull pen to Quebec. The first time the team went to nationals, they realized after they got there, they didn't have enough pitchers to win the tournament.
Lamb said this time around, they had too many.
Both Lamb and Calanchie said the team from Manitoba was high and above rest of the pack and that they went on to win the championship.
Manitoba's starter in the opening game against Yorkton went on to win the tournament's MVP award, and had closed out the gold medal game.
Ross Stilborn was the only Yorkton batter to record a hit against him. Next up for Calanchie and sports, he said is Junior 'B' or Junior 'A' hockey this winter.
