It won’t be until August when the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League will crown their 2017 league champion.
However, at this early stage of the campaign, it’s anybody’s guess which team it will be with a number of strong challengers making noise through the first few weeks of the season.
“I really feel like this is a wide-open league this year,” North Battleford Beavers player Kyle Palmer said. “Anyone has a chance at the moment and I really feel like whoever’s the hottest team at the end of the year, which will hopefully be us, will probably end up winning the title.”
“With so many of these teams, you really don’t have most of your full roster until later in the summer with work commitments and other events on the go,” Layne Young of the St. Walburg Reds added. “Speaking for our team, when we have all of our guys available and our bats going, we really feel like we can compete with any team in this league.”
That unpredictability was in full effect Thursday night at Beaver Lions Stadium, as the Reds almost let a four-run lead disappear in the bottom of the seventh inning as they held on for an 11-10 win over the Beavers.
“Any time you can get a win, which is what we need right now at this early stage, it’s always good,” said Young, who earned the victory on the mound for the Reds.
“We’ve had our ups and downs at times, and we saw that in this game, but I think we played well as a whole. Personally speaking, I was really happy with how I was throwing my change-up, but I need to make sure that I’m throwing strikes early to have the advantage over their hitters.”
Despite the loss on their home diamond, Palmer was pleased with the resiliency that the Beavers showed.
“The way we played in the last inning and how we battled back was a huge positive,” Palmer said.
“Our start wasn’t quite what we wanted, but that’s how baseball goes sometimes.”
The Beavers had a 3-2-1 record heading into a home game Monday night against the Meadow Lake Sox, in which the winner would take over first place in the Albers Division.
“Our bats have always been strong but we’ve been better with our pitching and defence, which has been something we struggled with in the past,” Palmer said.
“We added a couple of younger arms like Darvin Scheidl and Quinton Cubbon to the roster and we made sure that we hit the gym earlier this year to get in shape before the season started.”
The Reds, meanwhile, were third in the Smith Division with 3-3 mark as they geared up for a road game with the Lloydminster Twins Monday evening.
“We’ve had some off nights and some really good performances along the way here,” Young said. “We pretty much have the same lineup as last year, with a couple of extra guys joining us.
“Our bats are once again our biggest strength. If we can see the ball well, we usually have a good chance of making a hit.”
