Other than an unintentional roll into the dirt on a fielding play, Wilkie Brewers pitcher David Schell was locked in Tuesday night.
Schell pitched all seven innings and struck out six Meadow Lake Sox batters while giving up just four hits as the Brewers cruised to an 8-0 shutout win at home in Game 1 of their best-of-three North Saskatchewan River Baseball League semifinal series.
“I've been feeling pretty good out on the mound lately,” Schell said. “By the time you get to August you should be in mid-season form at least and I think the warm weather definitely helped me out a bit.
“My catcher (Ryan Cey) was awesome today and he called a great game. Meadow Lake is a really good hitting team and you have to keep them off-balance. You can't blow the ball past too many of their guys so you have to mix in some curveballs and some changeups if you want to do well against them.”
The off-speed pitcher that Schell was throwing proved to be a huge factor in the game as the Sox could never get anything going on offence.
“As the year goes on you start to get better with those pitches,” Schell said. “When the season begins you throw mostly fastballs as your kind of getting a feel for things again.
“When you get this point of the season everyone has seen good pitching so they know what to expect on those fastballs. Now you have to use the other pitches, especially the changeup, if you want to get them out.”
With Schell dealing on the mound, the Brewers bats did their part as they scored a run in every inning.
Rick Cey led the way on offence with a pair of doubles and three runs batted in. Jason Schell brought home two runners on a pair of singles while the rest of the runs came off of wild pitches and Sox errors.
“When your up against one of the best pitchers in the entire league in Quincy Winkler you need to take advantage of any chances you have early,” Schell said.
“It doesn't matter if that comes from walks or from errors in the field. You need to score those runs otherwise you might not have a chance to capitalize on your opportunities as the game goes on.”
After falling short in the semifinals the last two years, the Brewers can advance to the NSRBL final with a win Friday night in Meadow Lake.
If the Sox prevail in that affair, a third and deciding contest will take place in Wilkie Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.
“Meadow Lake is a strong team and they are the type of group that never quits,” Schell said. “They are going to bring their very best on Friday night and we will need to do the same.”
In the other semifinal, the Lloydminster Twins had a chance to clinch a spot in the league final Wednesday when they visited the Standard Hill Lakers.
The Twins picked up a 2-0 win over the Lakers in Lloydminster last Thursday.
