The Estevan Tower Wolves capped off a resurgent season with a run to the semifinals in the Harbourne Cup playoffs.
The annual playoffs of the Saskota Baseball League were held in Kenosee on the weekend, with the Carlyle Cardinals edging the Oxbow Chiefs 3-2 in the championship game on Sunday.
The Wolves, who finished second in the regular season with a record of 12-3-1, kicked off the senior playoffs on Friday night against the Arcola Threshers. Four games were played that night, each hosted by the higher seed, before the tournament moved to Kenosee on Saturday.
The opener was no challenge for Estevan, as they smacked the Threshers 11-1 at Mets Stadium. Clark Munroe started the game on the mound.
In their first of two games on Saturday, the Wolves were surprisingly blanked 7-0 by the sixth-place Lampman Pirates.
"I've played baseball for a long time and everywhere you go, when the better team walks onto the diamond expecting to win, expecting the other team to roll over and give you the victory, every single time that happens, the better team just gets whooped, and that's exactly what happened to us," said Wolves pitcher Dylan Lafrentz.
"There's no doubt in my mind that we're a better team than Lampman, but Saturday they outplayed us, outworked us, just did everything better than us. Calder (Neufeld) didn't pitch that bad, we just played terrible."
However, Estevan rebounded later in the day with a 6-3 victory over the third-place Carnduff Astros. Lafrentz started the game on the mound.
"It was a good game by both teams. We played good baseball. I think the Lampman game kind of lit a fire under us. We played really well all the way through that Carnduff game. We hit well, played good defence and that gave us a chance to beat Carnduff and move into a tiebreaker," said Lafrentz.
On Sunday, the Wolves and Astros squared off again in a tiebreaker to determine the winner of the pool, with Estevan winning 2-0.
"We played real clean, no errors. Kris (Keating) pitched really well again. We got hits when we needed them, unlike the Carlyle game (in the semis)."
Keating then started his second straight game in the semifinals against the first-place Cardinals, with the Wolves going down to defeat 4-1.
"Whenever we play those guys, we know we're in for a good game. We know that we have to play clean baseball and I guess a couple of errors, once again, made the game a little more out of reach than it probably should have been," said Lafrentz.
"What we were prepared for is we knew we were going to have to beat Carlyle at some point. We didn't really care whether it was the semifinal or the final. We just knew, as long as we get to the semifinal, we're going to have to play Carlyle eventually.
"It's disappointing to lose, but when you lose to a team like Carlyle, they're a good team, they do everything the right way and if you don't bring your A game you're not going to win. I think we brought our B-plus game against them, because we didn't play that bad. It's a good experience because our team's really young. It's a good experience for us to watch and play against Carlyle. They've got a lot of older guys who know what it takes to win. Hopefully it benefits our team."
After finishing in last place in 2013 with just two wins, the Wolves rebounded in a huge way this season and Lafrentz said it was largely due to improved talent and the right attitude.
"The biggest difference, probably, no disrespect to whoever was on the team last year, but this team is filled with ball players once again. Guys who have been around the game for 12 or 15 years and have played their whole life and at a pretty high level. Guys who have been to championships and have college experience. It's guys who have been around winning for a long time. I think everyone expects to win every single game," said Lafrentz.
"The team morale, from what I heard, it was totally different this year. Everyone just loves coming to the park.
"They couldn't wait to come and be part of something bigger. That's pretty important on a senior men's team in rural Saskatchewan that guys want to come."
