A regular-season ending doubleheader at Cairns Field against the Saskatoon Giants last Saturday didn’t go well for the Southeast Legacy midget AAA Twins baseball team, but the job now is to put that behind them as they enter provincial tournament play.
The Twins (13-17, sixth in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League) have been slotted into pool B of the 2015 midget AAA provincials championships along with the Saskatoon Diamondbacks (21-9, second), Parkland Expos (8-22, ninth), Saskatoon Cubs (20-10, third) and Regina Expos (12-18, seventh). Provincials run Friday to Sunday in Melville, with the Twins scheduled to begin competition with Friday games against the Parkland Expos and Cubs before meeting the D-Backs and Regina Expos the next day.
“I really do like the pool we’re in,” said Twins head coach Blaine Kovach, noting a team must finish in first or second place in their pool to advance to semi-final competition Sunday. “We’ve had very good games against every single one of the teams in our pool and for two of the teams (Regina Expos and Parkland Expos), we’ve won the season series. The other two we’ve played them very well. We’ve got a couple wins out of each of those series as well.”
The Twins enter provincial play after posting 4-3 and 16-6 losses against the Saskatoon Giants (11-19) July 18 in Saskatoon.
Kovach said the team played well in the 4-3 loss, which opened the doubleheader, but couldn’t get any timely hits to score their base runners. He said their pitching staff had a “really rough day” in the second game, but his players need to forget about that now and get the focus on what they do well and what they need to do to make it far this weekend.
“We’re hitting the ball well,” he said. “Our pitchers have been doing well. If we can continue to do what we’ve been doing successfully, we should be just fine. It really comes down to you (have) to win five games or you (have) to be in the top-two of your pool. Be in that top-two and make it to the semi-final and get past that semi-final game you book a ticket somewhere, so it’s what team can produce the best nine players for each game. I think we have a good shot at it.”
