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Up and down weekend for Midget Beavers

After starting off their season with road losses to the Moose Jaw Canucks and the Weyburn Beavers, the North Battleford Midget AA Beavers were hoping to use some home cooking to get into the win column.
Midget Beavers Catch
Nic Risling makes a diving catch in front of North Battleford Beavers teammate Tyler Benoit Sunday afternoon at Beaver Lions Stadium. Photo by Lucas Punkari

After starting off their season with road losses to the Moose Jaw Canucks and the Weyburn Beavers, the North Battleford Midget AA Beavers were hoping to use some home cooking to get into the win column.

They did just that with a pair of triumphs Saturday at Beaver Lions Stadium over the White Butte Broncos, but two losses at home Sunday to the Parkland Expos of Yorkton dropped their record in Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League play to 2-6 for the 2018 campaign.

“Our bats were cold in the two games down in Weyburn, so we spent a lot of time working on that  this week in practice before this four-game stretch,” Beavers manager Bert Benoit said.

“It showed in our two games Saturday against Pilot Butte with a couple of wins there, but we faced some good pitchers today and they were throwing some heat in both games.”

The two opponents the Beavers faced over the weekend were totally different when it came to their roster setup, as the Expos are a veteran squad and the Broncos have a number of first-year players.

“It was a bit of a role reversal for us Saturday as we were in the position of White Butte last year at the start of the season,” Benoit said. “It’s always a challenge to get used to playing at a higher level of baseball and going up against older lineups.

“The Expos have a solid team, especially with what they have for pitching, and I think that showed Sunday.”

One issue that Benoit would like to see rectified in the coming weeks is the number of errors that the Beavers have been making, which has allowed their opponents to put runs on the scoreboard.

“We’re still experiencing a bad inning in our games,” Benoit said. “We’re able to stay with our opponents, but then we have a couple of errors and things start to snowball.

“I think that will change with experience, but we need to work on supporting one another out there. Obviously we can get better on defence through infield work, but we also need to improve the mental side of our game.”

The Beavers will look to return to the win column Saturday afternoon with a pair of games in Regina.

Their next home doubleheader was slated for Thursday, June 7 at Beaver Lions Stadium, but those contests are being rescheduled due to a North Saskatchewan River Baseball League matchup slated for that night between the Standard Hill Lakers and the North Battleford Beavers.