Junior Bulls charge to 2-0
A year ago, Ridly Greig and a bunch of his Intermediate teammates experienced the thrill of a national title.
Now, Greig and some of his Lethbridge Junior Bulls teammmates look for another Canadian title, kicked up to the next level.
On Friday afternoon at Spitz Stadium, the Junior Bulls took another step towards that goal, improving to 2-0 at the Junior Little League Canadian Championship courtesy a 14-1 win over the Oakville Whitecaps from Ontario.
“Most of us have played quite a bit at nationals,” said Greig. “It does help. A lot of players know what it takes.”
Lining up at shortstop Friday afternoon, Greig did his part to help keep the hosts undefeated heading into Day 3 today, hitting a solo home run in the fifth inning and batting 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBI.
“The team’s rolling and we’re playing pretty good right now, it’s really fun,” said Greig, an accomplished hockey player as well who was selected in the first round and eighth overall in this year’s Western Hockey League Bantam Draft by the Brandon Wheat Kings. “Hopefully we can keep rolling, getting some hits and making plays on defence.”
Friday’s win featured a pair of shoe string catches in the outfield, but the offence wasn’t lacking either as Lethbridge plated four runs in the first inning and exploded for nine more in the third for a 13-1 lead.
They added one more in the fifth to round out the scoring.
“We get the bats going early and they don’t stay content throughout the whole game, they just keep working and that’s what we’ve had all year, a team that just likes to compete,” said Junior Bulls coach Shayne MacInnis, whose team continues their nationals run today when they face the Maritimes representative Sydney Sooners. “We’ve pulled out two wins, which is huge to start to the tournament.”
And for a chunk of this year’s roster, there is last year’s experie.ce to draw from.
“Last year they played together on the intermediate team that ended up winning Nationals in Calgary and ended up going to the World Series,” said MacInnis.
“So they have an idea of what it’s all about. But I think the big thing is being able to play in front of your home crowd and do the same thing and hopefully we can come out with being Team Canada at the end of the tournament.”
Reflecting on last year’s run to the Canadian title is OK, but the Junior Bulls coach cautioned against living on it.
“I don’t want them to focus too much on last year,” said MacInnis. “Obviously, it was a great experience for them to be able to play at the World Series. But the teams you’re playing against, they’re not just going to let you take it. You need to keep working towards it and they’ve done well so far.”
Ty Wevers batted 2-for-2 with three runs scored and one RBI, while Kalem Haney went 2-for-4 with
one run scored and two RBI.
For Ontario, Michael Bowman was 1-for-2 with an RBI.
In the first game Friday, the Alberta representative Medicine Hat Little League also improved to 2-0 with a 6-3 win over Coquitlam Little League/Fraser Valley from B.C.
Medicine Hat broke open a 1-1 tie after threeand-a-half innings with two runs in the fourth for a 3-1 lead, added one more in the fifth and two more in the sixth.
Little League first baseman and pitcher Silas
Blair was 2-for-4 with two RBI, while catcher Felix Miller plated a pair of runs and added an RBI as Alberta put up seven hits.
Heyden Harrison earned the win for Alberta, tossing two and one-thirds innings and allowing two runs on one hit, walking one and striking out one.
Tory Nelson took the save for Alberta, one-third of an inning and striking out one.
Josiah Punzalan took the loss for Ontario.
In the late game, Quebec and the Maritimes were in the third inning at press time.