The North Battleford Beavers were within three outs of their 2013 season coming to an end at the hands of the Border City Blue Jays.
In game two of the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League semi-finals, North Battleford took the league's top regular season team to extra winnings where Beavers MVP Kyle Gregoire hit a walk off home run.
It's do or die for both teams in Thursday night's game three in Lloydminster, with the winner moving on to the finals to take on the Lloydminster Twins.
Wednesday night's game started much quieter than it ended.
Gregoire took the mound for the Beavers and walked the first batter of the game. After a stolen base and a groundout, it looked like the Blue Jays were going to take an early lead, but Gregoire induced a pop out and a strikeout to end the inning.
Aaron Cadrin led off for the Beavers with a walk, followed by a stolen base, but, like the Blue Jays, the Beavers couldn't capitalize.
Border City got two runners on base in the second inning, but Gregoire got himself out of the jam with two strikeouts to silence the offence.
After a Ryan Myers groundout to start the Beavers' half of the inning, Gregoire showed he was capable with the bat, too. He hit a one-out triple, giving North Battleford a glorious chance to take an early lead. A walk, strikeout and flyout followed, stranding Gregoire at third.
With two outs in the third, Gregoire walked three straight Blue Jays batters as he struggled to locate the strike zone. Fortunately for North Battleford, he was able to get a strikeout to end the inning.
Solid base running paid off for the Beavers in their half of the third. After Cadrin struck out to start the inning, Brad Eischen and Jared Inkster walked and singled respectively. With Eischen on third following the single, a pitch in the dirt was lost by the Jays' catcher and Eischen came hard into home. His aggressive slide caused the ball to get away from the defence again and Inkster was able to score. Those were the first runs scored against the Blue Jays in the playoffs in their fourth game. Rory Gregoire, Myers and Kyle Gregoire all reached base consecutively following the runs. With the bases loaded, Tyler Russell reached on an error, scoring Rory Gregoire and giving the Beavers a 3-0 lead.
It was short lived. Border City loaded the bases quickly in the top of the fourth with nobody out. Cadrin was able to lay out for a beautiful diving catch to register the first out of the inning, taking some of the pressure off. He followed it up by making another diving stab the following at bat, this time on a ground ball, but all the runners were able to advance before Cadrin had a chance to make a throw. Now down 3-1, the Blue Jays hit a double and a single back-to-back, scoring three and giving them the lead. Jared Inkster came in to pitch in relief and gave up an RBI single to the first batter he faced, but got a double-play to end the inning.
The action slowed down until the sixth inning. Border City's leadoff batter walked and with one out stole second. After reaching first on an error, the Jays had two runners on with one out and executed a double-steal almost to perfection. Myers was able to throw the batter out at second, but the other scored on the play, giving Border City a 6-3 lead.
With time running out in the game and their season, the Beavers started to mount their comeback in the bottom of the sixth. Cadrin singled to start the inning. Eischen traded places with him after hitting into a fielder's choice. Three walks and a groundout over the next four batters was enough to bring Eischen home, making it a two-run deficit after six.
Inkster pitched a quick seventh inning, highlighted by a phenomenal defensive play by third baseman Derrick Chapman. A line ball was hit to him and after leaping and having it bounce off his glove, Chapman was able to grab it out of the air with his bare hand.
The Beavers players on the bench all had their rally caps on as Donovan Baxter stepped in to lead off the bottom half of the seventh inning, and it worked. Baxter hit a hard single. After Blair Geering struck out, Baxter was able to steal second, then advance to third and eventually home on errors, bringing the Beavers to within one. Cadrin reached first on an error as the lights were providing troubles for the defence. He proceeded to steal second, then made it to third on a wild pitch. Eischen was able to hit the ball hard to centre field, scoring Cadrin on the sacrifice fly to tie the game and keep North Battleford's season alive.
Two batters reached base with two outs for Border City in the top half of the eighth inning. The first was on an error by Kyle Gregoire, again due to the lights, and the second reached on a walk. Inkster was able to get the third out on a pop up into foul territory, no harm done.
Now in the bottom of the eighth, Myers grounded out to lead off, setting the stage for Gregoire to make up for his error just minutes earlier. He showed why he was the team's MVP, belting a pitch high hit over the right-field fence, giving the Beavers a 7-6 walk off win. As Gregoire rounded third base, his teammates were already waiting at home plate for him, celebrating the win.
The Lloydminster Twins await Thursday night's winner, having won their semi-final matchup in three games over the Meadow Lake Sox.
Statistics from the game:
Kyle Gregoire: Pitching - 3 1/3 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 4 K, 6 BB Batting - 2-3, 2 RBI, K, 2 BB
Jared Inkster: Pitching - 4 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 2 K, 3 BB Batting - 2-4, K, BB
Aaron Cadrin: Batting - 1-4, K, BB, 2 SB
Brad Eischen: Batting - 0-2, RBI, 2 BB
Rory Gregoire: Batting - 1-5
Ryan Myers: Batting - 1-3, 2 BB
Tyler Russell: Batting - 0-1, BB
Ryan Shepherd: Batting - 0-3, 2 K
C.J. Miller: Batting - 0-3
Derrick Chapman: Batting - 0-1, BB
Donovan Baxter: Batting - 1-1, SB
Blair Geering: Batting - 0-1, K
