The postseason is under way in the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League and there have already been a few surprises involving the Battlefords-based teams.
A pleasant surprise in the wild card round was the North Battleford Beavers, who upset the Unity Jr. Cardinals 7-6 to advance to the quarter-finals.
Not so pleasant was the exit of the Battlefords Trappers whose hopes were dashed with a 12-1 defeat at home to Meadow Lake.
The best of three quarter-finals were scheduled throughout this week to July 26. In one of the opening games, the Wilkie Brewers got off to a good start in their series against the Beavers on Monday night with a 9-3 win.
Wilkie had finished on top of the league at 9-2 during the regular season, the same record as both Standard Hill Lakers and the Lloydminster Twins.
Game two was scheduled for North Battleford Tuesday.
Also winning Monday were the Lloydminster Twins 2-1 versus Macklin and Standard Hill 15-5 versus Meadow Lake. The other series has Border City Blue Jays versus Kindersley Stallions with game one at Kindersley Tuesday.
The league MVP voting is under way. MVPs for each team have been announced and they include the following: Riley McNab of Mervin, Brock Harrison of Standard Hill, Andrew Hudec of the Trappers, Kyle Gregoire of the Beavers, Brett Esau of Meadow Lake, Layne Young of St. Walburg, Tanner Huber of Unity, Clayton Ermel of Border City, Jaydon Gartner of the Twins, Dylan Flasch of Kindersley, Jared Hillis of Macklin and Steve Redlich of Wilkie.
Voting is also underway for top pitcher and top batter. Finalists for pitcher include Jaydon Gartner of the Twins, Tanner Huber of the Unity Junior Cardinals, the Beavers’ Aaron Cadrin, Cooper Olson of Standard Hill, Chris Osmak of the Twins and Reagan Feser of Macklin.
Finalists for top batter are Brock Harrison of Standard Hill, Landon Noyes of Border City, Brett Esau of Meadow Lake, Jordan Oystrick of Meadow Lake, Tanner Fleck of Macklin and Dylan Flasch of Kindersley.
