When the weather co-operates like it did this week, you can't help but get excited about summer, and what goes along with the beautiful weather better than baseball?
The North Saskatchewan River Baseball League was in full swing, as 14 games were played in the last week.
The North Battleford Beavers started the season in Kindersley Friday, but after struggling to find the strike zone in the first game, the Beavers fell 7-0 to the Raiders.
Tuesday, the Beavers picked up their first win of the season in Unity with an 8-2 victory. Jared Inkster was the winning pitcher, as he went seven innings allowing five hits, three hit batters, three walks and two earned runs.
The Beavers chased Unity's starting pitcher Francis Kiefer off the mound after 4.2 innings and four runs.
Inkster and Brandon Gregoire both had three hits in the game, while Inkster had three RBI and Ryan Shepherd and Tyler Russell had two RBI each.
The Beavers fell to 1-2 on the season after their home opener Wednesday against Wilkie.
Kyle Gregoire pitched the complete game for the Beavers. Gregoire surrendered four runs in the first inning, but he settled in through the game and stranded several runners on base until the seventh inning, when Wilkie added three more runs.
Wilkie's Bye Braun pitched six-scoreless innings while the Beavers scored one run against Mitch Nielsen in their final at bat. The final score was 7-1 for Wilkie.
In Wilkie's first game of the season Tuesday, they surrendered one run as well, but fell 1-0 to Kindersley.
Taylor Heck allowed four hits for the Raiders in the win while Robert Cey allowed just two hits on the mound for the Brewers and one unearned run in the game.
Mervin started the season off with a difficult schedule, as they played the Lloydminster Meridian Twins May 24 and Tuesday and they faced the Border City Blue Jays.
The Flyers were out scored 22-1 in those two games to fall to 0-2 to start the season.
Standard Hill started their season with losses as well. The Lakers fell 15-5 to Meadow Lake Saturday, 14-3 Monday against the Midwest Expos and 14-3 Wednesday against Meadow Lake, again.
The other Northwest team, the St. Walburg Reds, battled the Border City Blue Jays to a 9-8 loss and also fell 6-1 against Kindersley Saturday.
The Border City Blue Jays and Lloydminster Junior Redhawks are the only perfect teams on the season, while four teams were without a win heading into action Thursday.
