If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
That’s the motto for the North Battleford Midget AA Beavers as they head into the Western Canadian Midget AA Championships in St. Albert, Alta. this week.
“A lot of what we are doing at this point of the year is just basic drills to make sure that everyone is on top of their game,” Beavers coach Michael Hudec said.
“We let our pitchers do some throwing and our hitters can take part in some batting practice. It’s just a matter of staying sharp before we get back to action this week.”
After winning the Saskatchewan Midget AA Tier 1 title in a 12-0 romp over the Humboldt Dodgers in North Battleford on July 24, the Beavers didn’t have a competitive game until last Thursday night.
That was when they took part in a friendly exhibition contest against the North Battleford Beavers of the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League at Beaver Lions Stadium.
“That was great for us to get an actual game before we left town,” Hudec said. “We had unlimited substitutions so it gave us a chance to experiment a bit more than we would at a tournament like the Westerns. Plus it allowed us to work the rust off a little bit, which you could see at times on some of our cut-off throws.
“We were able to move some guys into positions that they weren’t used to. We had our catcher Paul Cubbon go out on the mound for a little bit and he did a good job, as did Brett Benoit.”
The Midget Beavers ended up getting bragging rights over their local counterparts as they jumped to a 7-0 lead and held off a late comeback bid by the Senior Beavers on their way to a 11-7 triumph.
“We all had a great time playing these guys,” Beavers outfielder Dylan Schaefer said. “It was a nice friendly hometown rivalry and we got a nice crowd for the game as well.
“They can swing the bat a little harder and they can throw the ball a little bit harder than the teams that we face in our league, which made for a great challenge and tune-up for us.”
The Beavers will travel to St. Albert Thursday before they open the tournament against the host Cardinals at noon Friday.
They will follow that up with a pair of round-robin games Saturday against the Kamloops River Dogs from British Columbia and the Lacombe Dodgers from Alberta.
Their final round-robin contest will be Sunday morning against Manitoba’s Oak River Bearcats.
The top two teams in the standings will then play each other in the championship game Sunday night.
“We haven’t faced any of the teams that we will see in St. Albert so we are just expecting the unexpected when we go up against them,” Schaefer said.
“We want to stay in our groove here and keep playing the way that we have been over the last couple of weeks. On offence we need to approach our at-bats the same way we have been over the entire season and on defence we need to keep up that solid approach.”
The Beavers will also be drawing on their numerous comebacks from the Midget AA Provincials this weekend as they came from behind on four occasions on their way to a championship.
“We know what to do when we get to the bottom of the seventh inning if you know what I mean,” Schaefer smiled.
