This year’s North Battleford Midget AA Beaver baseball team will have a much different look to it than the one that won the Tier 1 provincial champions at Beaver Lions Stadium last July.
With only three players returning from that squad, there were be a few holes that will need to be filled on the roster when the 2017 Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League season begins for the Beavers Saturday with a doubleheader against the White Butte Broncos in Balgonie.
“We have a balance of the team moving up from the bantam ranks to play with us this year, along with Colby Heidt, Brock Thompson and Tyler Benoit who played for us last season,” Beavers head coach Bert Benoit said.
“Everyone’s pretty excited about the season ahead. We’ve been practicing in the gym since the last week of February and we just moved outside this past week, so we are all pretty anxious to get started.”
As one of the returning veterans, Thompson has moved into a mentorship role to help get the new Beavers players used to what life will be like at a higher level.
“There’s a lot of guys on this team that are willing to learn from us older players,” Thompson said. “They are willing to put the effort in and they are out here at every practice.
“I was in a similar situation to what they were in when I started out a couple of years ago, so it’s a little bit different to be in that teaching role now.”
Although he has yet to see the lineup in game action as of yet, Benoit is excited about the overall depth his team has to offer.
“Our hitting has been looking pretty good in our practices so I’m really looking forward to that part of our game,” Benoit said.
“In our league we play four games over the course of a weekend so it’s really important to have good pitching depth. At the moment, nine of our 13 players can throw the ball well, so that’s a good thing to have on our roster.”
It will be a busy opening weekend for the Beavers.
After their trip to Balgonie, they will travel to Moose Jaw Sunday for a pair of games against the defending SPBL champion Canucks.
“We know that our team isn’t going to be playing the same way that we were a year ago, so we’ll need to find out right away who can throw the ball and who can bat well,” Thompson said.
“If we can get some early leads, I think it will help to build some confidence for our younger guys. A few wins to start the season will be great as well, as we don’t want to be in a situation where we are trying to chase teams down at the end of the regular season.”
The Beavers will make their season debut at Beaver Lions Stadium in a doubleheader against the Regina White Sox on May 20.
