The Southeast U18 AAA Twins baseball team and the Estevan U18 AA Brewers baseball teams saw their seasons came to the end last week, but both teams made considerable strides during the season.
The Twins were defeated 7-6 by the Regina White Sox in the South Division semifinal Friday in Regina. The Twins scored four times in the top of the first inning, and had a 6-3 lead entering the bottom of the seventh and final inning, but gave up four to the White Sox, the top-ranked team in the south.
“We were facing a very good pitcher in Sam Boldt, and we were on him. We scored … three or four runs in in the first inning, and we controlled the play, we put the ball in play, and we forced them to make a couple of errors, and we looked very confident early on,” said Twins coach Trent Dorrance.
Jayke Smolinski and Kaiden Lyons pitched well, with Smolinski going three innings and Lyons lasting 3 1/3 innings. But the White Sox started to get to Lyons in the seventh. Rylan Erb and Bryson Anders came on in relief for the Twins in the final inning.
Had they won the game, the Twins would have played the south final against the Regina Athletics, who were second in the south. The Twins beat the Athletics twice during the regular season.
“We had a pretty good handle on the Athletics, so we were pretty confident going into that game,” said Dorrance.
The Twins started the season 1-5, but then went 7-5 down the stretch to make the playoffs.
“In a short season, we’ve come pretty far,” said Dorrance. “The hitting has been the biggest advancement … on the team. The pitching was solid right from the start of the year to the end of the year. The hitting was the biggest uptick that I noticed. Our fielding was pretty good from the first game to the last game.”
Ten of 13 players on the Twins are eligible to return next season, so they should have a strong team in 2021. Dorrance expects the club will add a few players from the Estevan and Weyburn U18 AA teams, who had strong seasons, and some good bantam prospects.
The Brewers, meanwhile, went 2-1 in the postseason, defeating the Lumsden Cubs 5-2 last Wednesday and the Regina White Sox 4-3 the following day, before falling 7-6 to the Weyburn Beavers on Friday in the South final.
Weyburn went on to win the league U18 AA title.
Coach Tim Miller pointed out the Brewers were able to manufacture runs against strong pitching.
“That’s the key with these single elimination games, is every team has one or two guys, even the bottom teams, and that kid (from Lumsden) pitched very well against us, but we still managed to come out with the victory,” said Miller.
And the Brewers were down 2-0 against the White Sox before rallying to win, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the sixth.
Estevan had a 6-1 lead over Weyburn in the top of the third, but the Beavers, the only team to beat Estevan this season, chipped away at the lead, and scored the winner in the bottom of the seventh and final inning.
Miller is still pleased that the Brewers finished second in the south division, and made it to the south final. Miller credited their pitching and defence for their success.
“Our bats would come and go as the season went on, but our pitching and defence were definitely very consistent for us this year,” said Miller.
The Brewers only had three third-year players on the 12-man roster, so they should be strong next year. And this was just the second year for the U18 AA Brewers program.
Some players might wind up playing with the Twins.
“If we lose a couple to the Twins, we will still have a very strong team next year, and we’ve already talked about we have a good opportunity of possibly winning league and a provincial title next year. It’s heavy goals to set next year, but I think we’ll have a strong team with where we’ve come from last year to this year.”
