The Southeast Performance Pump midget AAA Twins learned a valuable lesson about what it takes to compete with the top teams this past weekend.
The Twins (9-11) finished off their four games in two days trek by falling 15-2 in six innings to the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League’s (SPBL) second-seeded Saskatoon Cubs (11-3) in the second half of a Sunday afternoon doubleheader at Lynn Prime Park. The Twins lost the first game to the Cubs 11-0.
“They played a lot cleaner baseball,” said Twins assistant coach Kent Phillips. “We definitely made a few errors, walked a few too many guys and you play a good team like that they’re going to pick up on your errors and they’re going to capitalize on them every time.”
The Twins jumped ahead 2-0 in the top of the first inning in the final defeat only to see the Cubs reply with six runs of their own in the bottom of the first. Luke Niemegeers took the loss on the mound for the Twins giving up six earned runs while recording five hits, five walks and four strike outs in 3.1 innings of play. Cubs pitcher Devon Farrell got the win by striking out four batters, walking one and only giving up two unearned runs in five innings.
Cory Volk, an assistant coach with the Cubs, said their success this season comes down to competing hard in all three aspects of the game and that was showcased in the doubleheader against the Twins. He said their pitchers threw strikes while not allowing many walks, their batters got key hits at key times and the defence did their job.
One day earlier, the Twins earned a 6-3 road win over the SPBL’s third-place Swift Current Indians (8-7) at Mitchell Field before falling 11-6 to the Indians in the second half of the doubleheader. Phillips said that loss once again came down to giving up too many walks and not making the opposition earn their runs.
“It definitely tells us things we have to work on,” said Phillips, about their four games against the Indians and Cubs. “You can’t get away with making certain errors when you play teams of that calibre. If you play the lower-placed teams you can get away with an error here or there, but when you play calibre teams like the Cubs or Swift Current Indians they’re going to hit you every time.”
The Twins, who sit in seventh place in the SPBL, will next entertain the Northwest Prairie Pirates (3-10) in a Saturday doubleheader at Lynn Prime Park before welcoming the Saskatoon Giants (5-7) to town for two games on Sunday. Phillips said the focus in practice heading into the weekend games will be to revive the bats while also getting their recent fielding problems fixed.
“The biggest thing we have to do is play more consistently and that’s from the pitching to the fielding to the hitting,” he said. “If you’re not playing consistent you’re not going to beat teams that are going to play consistently all the way through the order.”
