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MACKLIN — Relief and excitement were two of the emotions heard in Macklin Laker’s coach/manager Derrick Lantz’s voice when he revealed that the Macklin Lakers will not be folding, but rather playing in the Battle River Baseball League.
It was earlier announced that the Lakers were unable to make a commitment to their former league, North Sask. River Baseball League, largely due to a small roster and not being able to field a team for two games a week.
“This is my 10th year with this team, and I did not want to see it fold,” Lantz says.
“I feared that if we folded then it would be very difficult to get back up and going again. The guys that committed wanted to play ball, but we needed to find a compromise that would allow us to do so with our small roster.”
Lantz said the NSRBL had a few stricter rules and regulations, one of those being a fine for forfeit.
“As a small, non-profit organization we couldn’t afford a hundred or so dollars if we weren’t able to put nine guys on the field for a scheduled game.”
Lantz said he knew of other senior teams or even midget teams struggling to fill their rosters or have other teams to play. He referenced one of his favourite former coaches in minor divisions who said, “In our part of the province, baseball is a sport, hockey is a religion.”
Lantz says talking with other teams they found more players wanting lake time or not wanting to make a full commitment to a summer ball season, and the pandemic certainly didn’t help this concern as people got comfortable doing other things away from the diamonds.
When Lantz reached out to BRBL, they were more than happy to take the Lakers into the fold. The league has each team playing one game a week from May to end of June, always on Wednesdays.
“We had 17 guys in 2022, and that dropped to nine committed players in 2023 as one moved away and five players decided to take a year off. The guys we had got talking and wanted to see if we could come up with some viable solution to play ball and the BRBL was it,” says Lantz.
The Lakers are able to add a player outside their roster as long as BRBL approves it before game time. That being said, the Lakers were able to add a 10th player from Vermilion and a couple others, one being from Wainwright, now making 12 on the roster. Their request for admission to the BRBL was accepted, which made both the team and Macklin baseball fans very happy.
The Lakers roster includes Hunter Steinhubel, Jared Hillis, Raegan Feser, Adam Gerling, Tye Scherger, Cody Gartner, Ian Hillis, Dawson Krieger, Ethan Scheck, Cort Shapka, Riley Applegate and Ray Martens.
Since the Sr. Lakers were officially accepted, Lantz affirms that the Macklin 18U Lakers have also requested admission to the same league and have been accepted. The team was looking for competition as they are fewer teams in 18U baseball to play.
The eight-team league will include Amisk Astros, Killam Braves, Viking Shamrocks, Veteran Bulls, Castor Raiders, Czar Outlaws, Macklin Sr. Lakers and Macklin U18 Lakers.
The season opener takes place May 17 and Macklin U18 will be at Killam while Macklin Sr. Lakers will welcome Czar Outlaws in their home opener. Each Wednesday, Macklin diamonds will host one of their hometown teams in a BRBL game, with the last game of the season, June 28, featuring the two Macklin teams playing each other.
“When I started this team a decade ago, we took our lumps the first few years,” Lantz says.
“But then we won provincials in 2018 and 2019. Of course, 2020 was a write-off for everyone due to COVID-19 but we won again in 2021. We always had good outcomes in the league, and we didn’t want to see this team fold. I, along with other team members, wanted to see Macklin Lakers continue playing baseball, knowing how hard it is to regroup after a leave of absence or even folding a team. I am glad to have found a workable solution for our team and that is once again back on the diamonds playing for another season.”
You can find games and updates on the Battle River Baseball League on their Facebook page.
