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Senior Beavers fall just short against Meadow Lake

A pair of 3-3 NSRBL teams battled at Beaver Lions Stadium on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Senior beavers
Bryce Gatzke takes a hack at a Quincy Winkler offering

A pair of 3-3 NSRBL teams battled at Beaver Lions Stadium on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

 

The North Battleford Beavers and the Meadow Lake White Sox went the distance in a toe-to-toe seven inning bout, with the Sox scoring in bunches early and often, en route to a 8-7 victory.

 

It was an 8-4 tilt before the Beavers climbed back into the game in the bottom half of the seventh. They seemed to have changed their approach against Quincy Winkler, the White Sox ace, scoring on a wild pitch, and then getting to his fastball.

 

The Beavers first baseman, Kyle Palmer, came up to the plate with a chance to make it 8-6 with a base hit. Instead, Palmer waited on that heavy 80 plus mph fastball from Winkler, taking him over the left field wall for a two-run shot.

 

“We’ve faced Quincy in the past so it wasn’t new to us what he throws like,” Coach Rory Gregoire said. “He throws hard and we haven’t seen that speed yet this year. The approach was to try and get on him and stay patient. It took us a few innings to adjust to the speed but then we started getting a few hits and guys on base.”

 

The hit capped off Palmer’s incredible afternoon, where he went 3-3 with 3 RBI and a homerun for North Battleford.

 

“Kyle has a heavy swing,” Gregoire said after the game. “When he connects he connects big time. In a few at bats today you could tell he never missed by much. In the seventh he finally connected. His presence in the lineup gives the rest of the boys confidence knowing if they can get on in front of him good things usually happen.”

 

Unfortunately, Palmer’s big game would be in a losing effort, as Winkler settled in and cut the comeback short, striking out the final two batters.

 

Winkler ended his complete game with five hits against, seven runs allowed and eleven strikeouts His record now moves to 2-1 on the season.

 

On the other side of the field, the Beavers starting pitcher struggled with his command, allowing the White Sox to jump ahead early in the game. It was a 3-0 ball game before North Battleford recorded an out.

 

Kyle Gregoire couldn’t find the strike zone in the top of the first, working back-to-back-to-back walks before throwing a wild pitch, allowing Meadow Lake to take a 1-0 advantage. Gregoire then hit his counterpart with a pitch before delivering another two base on balls, giving the Sox a 3-0 lead. Ryan Shepherd came in to relieve Gregoire, and did a fantastic job stranding two runners in scoring position. Two strikeouts and a ground out later, the Beavers escaped the opening frame with a three-run deficit.

 

From there, Tyler Russell took over with his first start of the season, and it was a good one. He struck out eight White Sox over six innings of work, allowing five hits and five earned runs.

 

“Tyler helped us out today by saving our arms for the upcoming week,” Gregoire said. “We have injuries to our pitchers right now and Tyler lives out of town and can only play a few games. Whenever he is able to come back and give us a few innings, it helps. Today he did exactly that, he kept us in the game. We made a few mental mistakes in the field behind him or things could have turned out different.”

 

This isn’t to say it didn’t take an inning or two to get settled in. In the top of the second the White Sox offence tacked on two more runs, increasing their lead to 5-1. Winkler helped his cause on the mount by driving a full count fastball to right centre for an RBI.

 

Russell found his place on the mound in the top of the third, while getting some help from his defence as well. Derrick Chapman made a terrific dive and stab at third base to record the second out, while Russell used his fastball to strike out the final two outs, painting the outside corner of the plate.

 

The Beavers had their opportunity to cut into the deficit in the bottom half of the inning. North Battleford loaded the bases after Winkler issued three straight walks. Nothing came of their efforts as the big pitcher from Meadow Lake recorded a strikeout and a ground ball out to keep the Beavers at bay.

 

Russell ran into trouble in the top of the fourth. After striking out the first two batters,Kevin Gerwing stepped to the plate and ran into a fastball over the plate, taking it over the wall to extend the lead to 6-1. The run was the first earned run of the game for Russell, who ended up striking out the side.

 

The lead was cut to 6-2 when the Beavers scored on a wild pitch, then Russell helped his cause  by ripping an RBI single to right field on a 3-1 fastball. Palmer’s second hit of the game with a ground ball up the middle brought in his pitcher to bring the Beavers within two runs. 6-4.

 

Just as the Beavers got themselves back into the game, an error in left field and two walks led to a bases loaded, no out situation. A sac fly made it 7-4, but Russell continued to keep his team in the game, striking out two batters and getting another groundout to limit the damage to one.

 

The White Sox added on another run in the top of the seventh before North Battleford came up just short with their three-run rally with their final at-bat.

 

“Our message was to try and get guys on base. Quincy was entering his seventh inning so he was getting tired,” Gregoire said. “We wanted to make him throw pitches, have good at-bats, and see what happens. It led to having the tying run on base, not much more we could ask. We came within one base hit from tying the game.”

 

The Beavers will now travel to Unity Tuesday to take on the Cardinals.