The action is heating up in the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League as four teams remain, and one of the four teams is a win away from advancing to the league final.
Wednesday, the Wilkie Brewers hosted the Meadow Lake White Sox in game one of their best-of-three NSRBL semi final.
The Brewers managed just four hits, but that was enough, as they won 3-2. Eight of nine Brewers' were struck out at least once by Meadow Lake's Quincey Winkler. Winkler tossed six innings in the loss, as Meadow Lake led 2-1 going into the sixth inning. An infield hit by Aaron Sittler, a single by Jason Schell and a triple by Russ Nielsen, his second hit of the game, gave Wilkie the 3-2 lead.
Brad Frehlich pitched the complete game for Wilkie, earning his second win of the playoffs and retired the one, two and three hitters in order in the seventh inning.
Meadow Lake was struck with some bad luck early in the game, as Kevin Gerwing injured his leg in the first inning going into second base. Because Meadow Lake had just nine guys he was forced to stay in the lineup and hobble in and out from left field and use his bat as a cane to get to the plate to bat. Unfortunately for Meadow Lake and Gerwing he doesn't have much time to recover, as the White Sox will face Wilkie Friday in the first game of the senior A2 provincials.
The other NSRBL game played earlier in the week had the Border City Blue Jays fall 10-5 to the Lloydminster Junior Redhawks in game one of the quarter-final series. The Redhawks advanced to play the Lloydminster Meridian Twins who are recovering from provincials where they lost the senior AA final to Marysburg 4-1.
Other players from the league also competed in provincials on the weekend in junior AAA provincials. Jared Inkster of the North Battleford Beavers, Barrett Nielsen of Wilkie and players from the Lloydminster Redhawks joined the Yorkton team, but they fell short of a title.
Nielsen, however, will be going to nationals in Windsor, Ont. Aug. 18 to 22 as a pickup for the Saskatoon Stallions.
