The Prince Albert U13 AA Royals got hits early and often on route to a convincing 36-2 victory over the Estevan Brewers to start the U13 AA Tier 1 provincials in Prince Albert on Friday afternoon at Kinsmen Baseball Complex.
Royals head coach Jason Van Otterloo says the win was a solid start to the tournament.
“Today was a very solid game for us. I loved our pitching performances. We had three guys go out and held their bats down, and more importantly, we came out and we bled them to death with singles, doubles and a couple of home runs. It was a nice game for our team all the way around.”
Prince Albert scored six runs in the bottom half of the first inning and never looked back. They would strike for 13 runs in the second inning capped off by a three-run home run by starting pitcher Nash Noble.
Van Otterloo says confidence was abundant throughout the Royal lineup.
“As soon as the top of our order starts clicking, everybody goes to the plate thinking they’re confident that they can do it, too. And it just runs through the whole order. And I’ll be honest, in games like this, where all these teams are so balanced, when your bottom of your order hits, you win. That’s just the way it goes.”
With the mercy rule being in place in the tournament, the Royals only needed three pitchers to get through the five innings of play. Nash Noble, Ashdyn Lysak and Noah Van Otterloo would combine efforts on the mound for Prince Albert.
Van Otterloo says the mercy rule allows the Royals to line up their pitching staff for a pair of games Saturday against the Muenster Red Sox and North East Expos.
“The nice thing is with the strategy for pitchers. This game put us in a great spot to have all the guys that we need available for the rest of the weekend. I’m very ecstatic that we came through this smoothly with it.”
Prince Albert returns to action at 12 p.m. Saturday afternoon when they take on the Muenster Red Sox at Kinsmen Baseball Complex.
