SPORTSHOUND: Blame it on the Rain

Tales from the Doug-Out: July 7, 2022

 

The Bonnyville U 18 AA Braves were in Camrose this past July long weekend for another 3-game round-robin set. The Braves are now sitting in tier two of the Baseball Alberta league.

Lots of tough games ahead of them but the biggest obstacle on Saturday was rain, rain, rain. The Braves first game Saturday against the Lloydminster Twins started at twelve noon. One of the Braves’ top chuckers Brad Atwal, who is coming back from an ankle injury was on the hill to start his first game since the beginning of the season. He pitched a scoreless inning and was slowly getting back on track. The coaching staff was please with his performance. Reliever Dallas Sparklingeyes came in to pitch 2 solid innings holding the Twins to only a couple of hits and maintaining the Braves’ 3-0 lead. After 3.5 innings the game was called due to the pouring rain and poor playing conditions.

 

Sunday morning the game resumed and the rookie ‘the Mighty Casey’ Warawa got the call from the manager and headed out to the mound for the first time this season. The ‘ Mighty Casey’ coming back from his knee injury was a little rusty to start but was able to pitch a couple of solid innings. The big unit Carter Goreniuk came in on relief and closed out the game with a couple of strong innings and giving the Braves an 8-6 win.

 

 

Due to tight scheduling, the Braves immediately began their second game of the day against Camrose. Starter Kobe ‘ Cobra’ Warawa pitched a great game only giving up 5 hits over 4 innings. Ethan Walgren came in on relief and pitched well, with Camrose scoring a couple of runs in the bottom of the 7th to tie the game. Off to extra innings, Camrose was able to score a few runs. The Braves only managed to get one across the plate, giving Camrose the win. Even still a very good game for the team to learn how to play under a little pressure and could be important in the weeks to come.

 

With a short bench, only 9 active players were able to make the trip for the weekend due to other commitments, the Braves limped their way into their 3rd game of the day. And it was not looking good right from the get-go as the boys were not quite up to par. The boys of summer booted a couple of balls and the bats went totally silent. Not the kind of help the Braves starting pitcher Keagan Locke was looking for. But the Braves did battle to the bitter end losing by a respectable score of 8-4.

 

 

Looking ahead to the next few weeks, the Braves should be back to a full roster for the remaining weekends in July which will help them compete and give some players a rest. The next two weekends will determine where the Braves will be sitting in their pool of eight teams in tier # 2. No doubt there will be some very competitive baseball games.