With only a handful of players returning from last year’s team, it was expected to be a transitional process for the North Battleford Midget AA Beavers at the start of this campaign.
While the reigning provincial champions currently find themselves at the bottom of the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League standings with a 0-12 record, the signs of growth are there for the team.
“We have a really young team here so there’s going to be a bit of a learning experience for them to get adjusted to the jump from bantam ball to the midget level,” Beavers assistant coach Brett Benoit said. “The pitchers are throwing the ball harder and the veterans are good at throwing the breaking balls, which many of our hitters haven’t seen before.
“There’s always room for improvement and we’re seeing that with how the guys are making adjustments.”
After playing their first eight games on the road, the Beavers had their home opener Saturday as they dropped 14-1 and 12-1 decisions to the Regina White Sox.
“That was a tough one,” Benoit said. “We didn’t really perform all that well against Regina, especially after we worked on a few things in practice during the week.”
A day later, run-scoring hits proved tough to come by for the home team as they fell by scores of 5-0 and 13-3 to the Weyburn Beavers.
“That kind of sums up our year right now,” Benoit said. “We played a lot better against Weyburn than we did against Regina, but we couldn’t cash in those guys that were getting on base at the top of our lineup.
“It’s always tough at the start of the year with a young team to get those bats going, as it was like that for me when I played with the Beavers a couple of years ago. It almost feels like a two-year process at times.”
One of the top performers for the Beavers was Brock Thompson, as he threw 105 pitches over the course of the weekend in addition to making some timely hits and great plays in the infield
“Brock threw 105 pitches a couple of weeks ago so he’s become a bit of a workhorse for us,” Benoit smiled. “He’s a good kid to have on the roster as we can use him in a number of situations.
“He’s helped us to keep their runs low in a few games, but we haven’t been able to get those bounces going our way to help him out.”
The Beavers will be hard at work in practice this week before another weekend doubleheader at Beaver Lions Stadium
They will play host to the Regina Blue Jays at 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday prior to a pair of games Sunday with the defending SPBL champion Moose Jaw Canucks at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
“There’s going to be a lot of batting practice in our future that’s for sure,” Benoit said.
“We’re also looking to get a couple of more guys pitching on the mound so we can have some more depth there. There’s some positives that we can take out of the weekend here, and we’ll be trying to build off of that in the coming weeks.”
The Beavers will be in a tournament in Saskatoon starting on June 2, before they host the Regina Pacers on June 10 for their last currently scheduled home games of the regular season.
The Humboldt Dodgers were to have visited Beaver Lions Stadium on June 25, but they have elected not to play in the league this year.
