Although they dominated in the regular season for the second straight year, that ultimately didn't lead to further success for the Estevan Sherritt Coal Haulers.
The baseball club lost in the semi-finals of the Baseball Regina bantam AAA playoffs on the weekend, with a 6-4 defeat against the Swift Current Indians ending their season.
The Haulers surrendered four runs in the first inning and never fully recovered.
Estevan head coach Kent Phillips said the previous game ran late, meaning the Haulers and Indians didn't get in a proper warm-up. He felt that affected Haulers starter Josh Brown.
"Our pitcher had to warm up as the game went on. He got better as the game went on, but he wasn't quite warmed up in the first," Phillips said. "Other than that first inning, he pitched well."
"We batted well. They had their two best pitchers throwing against us, so we knew we were going to be in tough," said Phillips. "They didn't score any runs on errors. They had to hit the ball and get base hits in order to get those runs."
The highlights from the Swift Current game included a pair of spectacular catches by Brett MacMurchy in centre field.
To get to the semis, the Haulers smacked around the Moose Jaw Mallards 11-0 in five innings in their first game. That came in stark contrast to the team's 7-6 loss to Moose Jaw at provincials earlier this month.
A big reason for that was the no-hitter thrown by starter Kyler Phillips. He only needed 67 pitches to complete the game, striking out seven hitters in the process. The only base runners for the Mallards were two-hit batters.
With teams only playing a maximum of three games during the playoff tournament, Phillips said he felt he could leave his son in to finish the game, unlike during the Moose Jaw game at provincials, where managing pitch counts is more important.
"Kyler pitched the first three innings in North Battleford (at provincials) against them. We were up 5-0 when I pulled him. The difference (in Regina) was I let him go, knowing we had enough pitching after that to play two more games."
Among the other standouts on the weekend, Phillips said Carson Perkins was strong at the plate and that Kyle Sargent played well at first base, a position he doesn't normally play.
The team was without Brady Third and Tyran Brown on the weekend. They were participating in the Saskatchewan Hockey Association Top 40 camp in Wilcox.
The Indians ultimately won the league championship, defeating the Regina Buffalos 7-4 in the final on Sunday in a game that required 10 innings.
Phillips said it was a pleasure to coach this year's team, but expectations for the season were not met.
"We had a very good team. A great group of kids to coach, very coachable, every single one of them. That being said, (it was) a little bit of a disappointment not going further into the provincial tournament. We thought our talent pool was so deep that we expected to have a better outcome."
Meanwhile, 10 of the 12 players on this year's roster will graduate. The only players eligible to return are second baseman Hunter Piche and centre fielder Brett MacMurchy.
