High scoring affairs are often the norm when a new baseball season gets underway.
That wasn’t the case on Thursday evening at Beaver Lions Stadium, as the Unity Cardinals opened up their defence of the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League championship with a narrow 2-1 victory over the Battlefords Trappers.
“If you looked at the first couple of innings and saw how both teams were booting the ball around on defence, I would have expected the final score to be something like 10-9,” Cardinals third baseman and coach Graeme Gieni said.
“After that, the pitchers really started to take things over for both teams, and that was nice to see for the season opener.”
Although the Trappers started off the season on a losing note, utility player Mike Ross felt there were several positives the team could take away from the contest.
“We were in bunch of tight pressure situations and we were able to get out of some tight jams, so it was good to see our guys perform well when the Cardinals were looking to take advantage with some runs,” Ross said. “We split the guys up on the mound tonight as we’re getting ready to play Wilkie here Tuesday, but I felt like everyone was throwing well out there.
“We were missing some guys from the lineup like Mike George and Braydon Buziak, but Matthew Hudec was out playing a competitive game for the first time in over six years and he was out here ripping doubles for us.”
Coming off of their first season in the league last season, the Trappers are hoping to build off of their experience and contend for the NSRBL crown in their sophomore campaign.
“I think the younger guys on our team learned just how competitive the league is a year ago,” Ross said. “They aren’t the fresh faces anymore. They know what to expect and any nerves they had are gone.
“One of the biggest things we’re focused on is our defence. We want to be a lot more sound in that part of our game after we made a ton of errors last year.”
The squad that everyone is chasing in the 12-team loop is the Cardinals, who are looking to continue their wining ways after capturing their first league title in 2017.
“We’ve never been in this situation before so it’s a little bit of a different season for us,” Gieni said.
“I really think this is going to be a season where you can have any team win on a given night. If you get strong pitching, have a solid defence and get some timely hits, you can beat anyone in this league.”
Thursday’s other contest saw Lloydminster Twins pick up a 5-2 win over the Border City Blue Jays in Lloydminster
League play will resume Tuesday with the Wilkie Brewers visiting the Trappers for a 6:30 p.m. tilt at Beaver Lions Stadium.
Meanwhile, the North Battleford Beavers will start off their season in Unity against the Cardinals.
