The Battlefords Trappers 2017 campaign is a long way from being finished.
However, their chance of making it in the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League playoffs came to an end at Beaver Lions Stadium Thursday night.
A four-run outburst by the Meadow Lake Sox in the top of the sixth inning proved to be too much for the Trappers to overcome as they dropped a 12-8 affair and saw their record fall to 3-8 for the season.
That setback officially put them out of the playoff picture, as with only three games left, their six wins would not be enough to overtake the four teams that currently occupy the wildcard spots in the NSRBL.
“If you look at our record we lost a lot of close games but we’ve had a lot of these high scoring shootout games in the second half,” Trappers manager Michael Hudec said.
“Our runs scored and against have been about even this year, but at this part of this season it’s about getting runs at the right time, and that’s proven costly for us on a few occasions.”
Thursday’s setback came exactly a week after the Trappers roared back from a five-run deficit to force extra innings at home against the Lloydminster Twins, only to fall by an 14-11 score.
“It’s pretty much the last team to score wins,” Hudec said. “That game last week was one where errors hurt us, and tonight’s loss was one where we just ran out of arms on the pitching side of things at the end of the game.
“We hit the ball well enough tonight to win, but we stranded a lot of runners on base. They were able to capitalize on their scoring chances and it shows in the final score.”
The Trappers still have an opportunity to finish their inaugural campaign in the NSRBL with a few wins.
After visiting the 0-12 Midwest Expos Monday, they will hit the road again Wednesday to play the 4-7 St. Walburg Reds before hosting the 9-3 Unity Cardinals at 7:30 p.m. in their regular season finale.
“We have eight players on our team that will be on the junior squad that will be at the provincials in Regina starting on July 21, and we’ll also have a number of guys that will be trying out for the select team that will be going to nationals in Ottawa in August,” Hudec said.
“We might have a game here in town with a combination of the senior guys from the Beavers and Trappers going head-to-head with our junior team, but we are still working out a date for that and some other exhibition games.”
Thursday’s road win was a massive one for the Sox, who wrapped up their regular season with a 7-7 record.
With the North Battleford Beavers snapping a four-game losing streak and improving to 6-6-1 with a 12-1 romp over the Expos, the Sox remained tied for first place in the Albers Division.
“This was a must-win game for us and we needed to get our bats going,” Sox third baseman Kevin Gerwing said. “It was a little bit of a tough night for us as we were missing a few guys due to graduation, but we worked through it and got some key hits all through the lineup.
“If the Beavers win their last game of the season (which takes Thursday when they’ll visit the 6-7 Mervin Flyers) they’ll win the Albers Division and we’ll be in the mix of the four wild card spots. With what we did tonight, I think we’re in better shape of getting a playoff berth, as it would have been really tricky if we had lost.”
Heading into Monday’s slate of game, the 11-1 Border City Blue Jays, the Cardinals and the 8-3-1 Standard Hill Lakers were the leaders in the Smithson, Colliar and Smith Divisions respectively.
Joining the Sox in the wild card mix are the 7-5 Mackin Lakers, the 7-4-1 Lloydminster Twins and 7-5 Wilkie Brewers, who are the defending NSRBL champions.
The Reds and Flyers still have a shot of getting in the playoffs, but they would have to win their remaining games and have some help from the other teams in the league.
The regular season concludes Friday.
