The North Battleford Beavers find themselves in a bit of a hole to start off the 2017 Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League campaign.
The reigning provincial Midget AA Tier 1 title holders dropped their first four games of the season over the weekend, as they travelled on the road to face the White Butte Broncos of Balgonie and the defending SPBL champion Moose Jaw Canucks.
“Going up against those two teams after only have a couple of practices on the field wasn’t quite enough,” Beavers coach Bert Benoit said.
“We’re a pretty young group here in this league and the guys tried their best in all four games. I think we just need a little more practice before we’re up there with top teams in the league.”
The Beavers opened up the season against the Broncos Saturday, where they came out on the losing ends of 9-4 and 7-6 affairs.
“The guys had a couple of nice rallies in both games and they were pretty fired up about putting up a few runs in back to back innings,” Benoit said.
“We kept up with the Broncos, so we were happy about how the guys played in those two games.”
Sunday’s trip to Moose Jaw was not quite as enjoyable as the first half of their weekend slate of games, as they suffered 16-1 and 10-0 losses.
“Those games weren’t very pretty,” Benoit said. “A huge difference in that matchup comes from the fact that we have only three guys returning on the team, and Moose Jaw has seven to nine players that are back from last year, so they might be the strongest team in the league.
“In the second game we played them, they held back some of their older guys and played a lot of their younger players. We were able to hang right with them until the last couple of innings when they started to pull away.”
As the team reconvened for practice Tuesday night, Benoit and the rest of the coaching staff were ready to work on the basics with their young squad.
“Pitching and hitting is our major focus at the moment,” Benoit said. “We’re going to be throwing a lot more curveballs and changeups, as the younger guys aren’t exposed as much to using those pitches when they are starting out and pitches like the curveball are used quite a lot in the midget ranks.
“The same goes for hitting as the guys aren’t used to trying hit the curveball. Once we get used to throwing and hitting the different pitches, we’ll be in better shape.”
The Beavers will be back on the road Saturday, as they’ll visit the Lumsden Cubs for a doubleheader.
They will remain in Lumsden Sunday afternoon for a third game against the Cubs and a neutral site contest with the Canucks.
“Originally we were scheduled to go to Humboldt for a doubleheader against the Dodgers, but they have dropped out of the league,” Benoit said. “We were fortunate enough to have Moose Jaw come up for a game as it helps us to get the four games that we like to have during a weekend.
“Lumsden has a pretty strong team this year. We beat them in the semifinal at the provincials, but they have a lot of veterans coming back from that team and I expect them to be right up there with Moose Jaw in the standings.”
The Beavers will make their debut at Beaver Lions Stadium Saturday, May 20 for a pair of games with the Regina White Sox.
“The entire team’s pretty excited about having a game on their home diamond again,” Benoit said.
They will then host the Weyburn Beavers for a doubleheader Sunday, May 21.
