A walk-off 5-4 win over the Saskatoon Giants on Sunday at Regina’s Currie Field closed out the Southeast Performance Pump Services midget AAA Twins’ regular season while also setting them up to enter the provincial championships on a winning note.
The Twins, who have won their past two games and three of their last five, enter the Baseball Saskatchewan midget AAA championships sitting in sixth place in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League with a record of 13-17. The club will kickoff the tournament with a late-Thursday pool ‘B’ game against the ninth-place Parkland Expos (11-19) at Saskatoon’s Cairns Field.
The second-place Saskatoon Cubs (21-9), third-place Swift Current Indians (15-15) and seventh-place Giants (13-17) comprise the remaining three teams in pool ‘B’ at the provincial championships. After a four-game round robin, the top two of these five teams will advance to the playoff round with the gold-medal winner earning a berth in the Baseball Canada championships in Sherbrooke, Quebec, on Aug. 18-22 and the silver and bronze medal winners capturing spots at the Western Canadian championships in Sherwood Park, Alberta, on Aug. 12-14.
Blaine Kovach, head coach of the Twins, said they took the field on Monday night for an extended hitting practice before doing a bit of light work on all positions on Tuesday to try and get ready for the competition. During the regular season, the Twins saw plenty of game action against their pool opponents going 1-3 against the Expos, 1-2 against the Cubs, 2-2 against the Indians and 3-0 against the Giants and Kovach believes this familiarity will bode well for them on the weekend.
“Realistically I think we can make a push for that Sunday playoff round,” he said. “Every coach wants to do that, but I think we can truly make a push for that final.”
