Down the Line
Tales from the Doug-Out: July 17th, 2018
There’s nothing wrong with these parents if they happen to brag to you about their kids. These are nice kids and they play baseball really well. Ok, well, most of the time anyway. And since I have none of my relatives on the team, it’s ok if I brag a little bit for them.
The Elk Point Mosquitoes provincial team is a pretty darn good bunch of ball playing kids. Some of these kids are naturally talented and anyone who has watched this past weekend would agree with me. Yes they can make lots of errors and sometimes it looks a lot simpler than it actually is. But you have to remember these are young kids.
The coaching staff has brought them a long way since the beginning of the season, making this into a very competitive team at their AA tier five provincial level. Head coach Dennell Anderson, assistant Blair Sinclair and the team manager Margaret Bayduza are doing a terrific job teaching this group the ins and outs and skills and thrills of baseball. The proof was shown this past weekend when their Mosquito team hosted a provincial round robin and won two out of three games.
The first game was against North East Zone of Edmonton, the Padres, and the Sox were victorious winning by a score of 8 to 3. This game went the complete six innings in just under two hours. Mosquitoes at this level have a time limit of two and a half hours, or the ten run mercy rule after four innings.
Raif ‘Rug Rat’ Evans-Anderson getting the call to start the game on the mound. The Sox down by three runs early in the game when reliever Madden ‘Mad Dog’ Flamand came in to chuck the ball and shut the Padres down for the next 5 innings. Mad Dog never allowed any runs, only giving up two base hits and walking two batters. He struck out the majority of the batters with a very few making any contact at all with the ball. For the few who managed to hit, his fielders were there, making nice plays and getting the outs.
Closer Kale ‘the Hawk’ Ockerman coming in to finish the game in the sixth. The Hawk, while batting, smacked a nice double to right field, his second at bat going to the same spot but the right fielder made a Kevin Pillar type diving catch, otherwise it was gone for a double too. ‘Top Gunner’ Crawford getting a single and robbed on his second at bat too by the first baseman who came up with the ball.
A big 10-4 (good buddy) in the second game Saturday night against the Rocky Mountain House Sun Devils, the Sox on the losing side of the 10 to 4 score. The Sox faced the Sun Devil two top pitchers, who did the same kind of number on them that the Mad Dog had done to the Padres earlier in the day.
A single by ‘Top Gunner’ the only hit for the Sox. Timmy the ‘Freight Train’ Cardinal getting the start on the mound for the evening game. He throws strikes, doesn’t walk many batters and relies on his fielders to help him out. Koltin Davies and Rylan Dustow on relief, both of them are very good at throwing strikes.
The Sox third and final game on Sunday morning was against the South Side Edmonton Angels. Janka Dawn Evans-Anderson getting the assignment going to the mound to start this one. Her cousin ‘Bo Diddley’ Fontaine in the bull pen warming up, getting the nod for middle relief.
The Sox struggling at the plate were down early in this one by 11 to 2 after two and a half innings. Leading off the bottom of the third inning, Rug Rat would lay down a beauty bunt single getting on base. Rug Rat is a very aggressive base runner and it was only two pitches later he was on third base. The rally caps are on. Top Gunner with a single bringing in a run, Kaleb ‘Formula One’ taking a walk, Rylan Davies with a double bringing in a run, Freight Train hits a sacrifice single driving in two runs , ‘Cyclone Cole’ Pierce driving in two. The Sox added 6 runs in the third to make it 11 to 8.
The game is getting interesting now. Top Gunner the closer up on the mound now; but, of course the Angels are not going to just roll over, they add two more runs of their own in the top of the forth inning. The Sox answer with four more runs in the bottom of the forth inning. Koltin Davies, the Hawk, Formula One and Rylan Davies all hitting singles, and then a big double by Cyclone Cole giving him 5 RBI’s in this game alone.
Bottom of the fifth inning, the Sox now down by three runs and the two and half hour time limit is now up. Last bats for the Sox. It’s do or die. With one out, and one run in, and runners on first and second base, slugger Rylan Davies comes to the plate. He’s a big man, here’s the pitch… a big swing…. Rylan pounds a hot liner right over first base and down the line to the outfield fence. Two runs score. The Sox win!! The Sox win!!!!
A win is always good. But a walk off win is even better. In fact nothing can be better than having your teammates meet you at home plate when you drive in the winning run.
Good Luck to the Sox . Two weeks from now they will travel to Rocky Mountain House for the Provincial Finals. Lets bring home the gold!
And now for the K. A. Campbell quote of the week. ‘ Baseball, my son, is the cornerstone of civilization. – Dagwood Bumstead
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