Defending their 2012 Southeast Saskatchewan Senior Baseball League crown, the Yorkton Yankees have came across a worthy rival in the Canora Supers to start the 2013 SESBL season. With both teams starting the 2013 season on a tear going undefeated heading into a Tuesday night clash at Jubilee Park, a much anticipated clash for first place in the league would be the first test to the Yankees title defense after being the class of the league defeating the Willowbrook Royals in the 2012 final.
Logan Calanchie would get the start on the mound for the Yankees who went with their staff ace to go up against the Supers starter Colby Parachoniak in a duel between two very hard throwing pitchers. With both starters on their game, the Yankees relied on some clutch baserunning and timely runs to outlast the Supers in what was a game with little offense as the two high powered offenses combined for just seven hits with Calanchie and Parachoniak dealing on the mound.
At the end of the day, Delane Lamb's lone RBI of the game and a run reached on an error proved to be the difference as the Yankees took a 2-0 win to advance to 7-0 on the season and end the Supers seven game winning streak to open up the season, a huge win for the Yankees as the Supers have been emerging as the favorite to knock off the Yankees in their title defense in 2013.
Both starting pitchers were lights out on Tuesday night. Parachoniak, who plays college ball in upstate New York during the school year, threw 11 strikeouts in six innings of work, walking just two batters and allowing just one earned run in a start that would be good enough to win on most nights, but just didn't get the run support needed to get the win.
Calanchie was equally as good on the mound for the Yankees, striking out seven, walking none and allowing just three hits in getting the decision for the Yankees. With both teams averaging six plus runs a game, the pitching numbers are even more impressive as both starters shut down lineups that have been providing opposing pitchers with countless problems all season.
Now with both the Supers and the Yankees sitting at seven wins apiece it is apparent that the race for the SESBL title this season is looking like a two horse one with the rest of the league trying to catch up.
With 51 runs in eight games for the Supers and 67 runs in seven games for the Yankees the two ballclubs have over double the total runs of every team in the SESBL at this point while having the best pitching at the same time as the two teams continue to pull away from the pack at the top of the league standings table.
Last year's playoff teams in the Langenburg Indians and the league runners up from 2012 Willowbrook Royals are still in the hunt however with both teams posting four wins so far this season with the Indians at 4-2 and the Royals at 4-4. With the dominance of the Supers and Yankees both statistically as well as in the win column it is hard to see any team making a move to catch them, but the Indians at 4-2 could very well pull away from the rest of the SESBL with the only above .500 record beyond Canora/Yorkton.
Past the top four teams, sit the Swan River Reds (2-3, fifth place), Melville Bison (1-4), Russell Bulls (1-6), Parkland Padres (0-4) and Yorkton Orioles (0-2) to round out the SESBL standings up to this point.
After a 2-0 win over their new rivals atop of the league, it seems that the Yorkton Yankees are ready to answer any challenge that comes their way in their title defense. In a league that has been dominated by two ballclubs to open up the season, the rivalry between these two teams may become the story-line of the local senior season. So far Yorkton has the bragging rights, staying undefeated as champions, but there is a lot of baseball left to be played this summer.
