The Estevan TS&M Tornados wrapped up the Baseball Regina peewee AAA regular season with a pair of losses to the Swift Current Indians on Saturday at Cactus Park.
The Tornados (5-7) finish in sixth place and were scheduled to face Weyburn (17-3) last night in quarter-final action in Weyburn.
A stiff challenge, that, but there was reason to believe a victory was possible.
The Tornados recently beat Weyburn for the first time this year in a game made up from June 7.
"It's possible. They're a really good team, strong in every way, but at least now the boys know they can do it. If they beat them once, they can do it again," said Tornados head coach Landon Lafrentz.
A win last night would send the Tornados to a semifinal game on Thursday against either Yorkton or Melville.
On Saturday against the third-place Indians, the Tornados got rocked 17-0 in the first game and coughed up a lead in the second en route to a 10-5 loss.
"We struggled defensively," Lafrentz said of the first defeat. "We pitched some of our rookie pitchers just to give them a chance, because the league standings were already decided.
"We just couldn't seem to get any runs, no matter what we did."
Jordan Stein led the Tornados at the plate with a 2-for-2 outing.
In the second game, the Tornados built a 5-1 lead, but it all unravelled in the later innings.
After narrowing the deficit to one run, the Indians scored twice in the sixth to take the lead, including one run on a balk.
Swift Current exploded for five more runs in the top of the seventh.
"It was just some mental errors by our pitchers. There was a balk. Brett (MacMurchy) pitched really well up until the fifth inning, then they kinda started hitting him and I think he started to tire out a bit," said Lafrentz.
"Then we put Shae Little in and he struggled a bit too, then we brought in Cole Fonstad to get the last out.
"Other than that, we hit the ball well in the second game and played well up until those last couple of innings, where we just kind of lost it."
Fonstad was the team's top batter, with a single and a double.
