Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
There is a new kid on the block and if Saturday’s performances are any indication than home cooking is going to serve the Prince Albert Padres just fine as they move forward in their inaugural season in the Saskatchewan Premiere Baseball League.
“The boys played real well,” said Padres manager Jason Van Otterloo following 8-4 and 15-10 victories over the defending 18U AA Tier 1 champion Weyburn Beavers. “We had great pitching and everybody played great.”
Markus Exner was the star of the first game on Saturday as he not only went 2-for-3 at the plate, including a home run, he also picked up the win going six and two-thirds innings allowing eight hits and striking out nine.
In the second game it was Emmet Kihn leading the way at the plate going 3-for-4 and scoring a pair of runs. Josh Bonthoux and Seamus McFarlane combined to pick up the win improving the Padres record to 2-1 on the season.
Until this year Prince Albert was represented by one team – the Royals – in both the 15U AA and 18U AA divisions of the SPBL. Van Otterloo says a surge in interest in the sport has forced the Prince Albert Minor Baseball Association to adjust to the times.
“We knew this day was coming,” says Van Otterloo of forming another team. “These kids have been together for seven years and we knew when they got to 18U we would need to form another team. It was a great choice.”
“Eleven of our 12 players are first-year players (at the 18U level),” added Van Otterloo. “The other player is a second year where the Royals are mostly third-year players. And we did that intentionally.”
Van Otterloo acknowledged that recent Toronto Blue Jays success has played a part in the recent increase in popularity of the sport, but he also says the local PAMBA board has done a lot of good work as well.
“We’ve done a lot of work in the last six years to make sure baseball is more exciting at a younger age,” states Van Otterloo. “You are not seeing players try it for a year and then leave. They are sticking around.”
The rise in numbers has even caused problems for the organization as Van Otterloo says they are at maximum capacity and have even asked the City of Prince Albert for more diamonds. He said some plans have been discussed, but there is nothing firmed up for the immediate future.
As for the Padres, the future looks bright and Van Otterloo says with strong pitching and sound defensive play they should be able to attain a goal they have set out to accomplish.
“There are 15 teams in the league and if you finish in the top eight you go into Tier 1 provincials,” explains Van Otterloo. “We want to be in the top half. If we sneak into the top half we will call the season a success.”
While the Padres had just the doubleheader on Saturday this past weekend, the Royals were much busier playing a doubleheader in Lumsden on Saturday before returning home for a twinbill against Weyburn on Sunday.
The Royals entered the weekend 0-3 and were outscored 30-15 in those contests and after an 11-1 loss to the Cubs in Lumsden in the opener on Saturday it didn’t look like things were going to change. But, did they ever.
Prince Albert scored twice in the seventh inning of the nightcap on Saturday to register a 7-6 decision for their first victory of the season and then back home on Sunday they swept Weyburn by 17-0 and 9-7 scores.
“We have a veteran group,” says Royals’ coach Graham McGregor. “We have a lot of veteran leadership and we are confident we will be a competitive team.”
Tye Semenchuk, Kole McGregor, Declan Borthwick and Jackson Anderson each had a pair of hits to lead the Royals to their initial victory of the season on Saturday while Semenchuk was 3-for-3 with five runs batted in to lead Prince Albert to the lopsided decision in the opener against Weyburn on Sunday.
McGregor and Carter Martin led the way in the second win against the Beavers as each collected three hits in five at-bats with McGregor’s performance coming on the heels of a seven strike-out effort to record the victory on the mound in the opener against Weyburn.
The Royals will be looking to extend their win streak to four games, and in the process climb back to the .500 mark on the season, when they travel to Marysburg on Wednesday to play the Red Sox.
The 15U AA Royals were also looking to rebound from a slow start to the season when they, too, played four games on the weekend.
On Saturday the Royals got a walk-off, game-winning single from Nolan Wasylyk to outscore the Battlefords Beavers 17-16 for their first win of the season. Wasylyk, Sam Gray and Jovie Herperger each recorded three hits for the Royals, who entered the weekend at 0-3 and had been outscored 72-9 in those three defeats.
Prince Albert dropped the second game of the twinbill against the Battlefords 24-11, but on Sunday they got back in the win column with a 13-8 triumph over the Saskwest Sasquatch from Edam.
Nate Stasiw led the way for the Royals against the Sasquatch going 3-for-4 and scoring three runs at the plate while also tossing five-hit ball over four innings on the mound. Gray, Herperger and Nyjah Ancheta also had big games scoring two runs each.
The weekend didn’t end favorably for the Royals as they were defeated 8-1 in the second game of the doubleheader against the Sasquatch, but they will look to return to the win column when they head to Humboldt on June 6 to face the East Central Dodgers.
