The Sask Five 18U AAA Giants split a doubleheader against the Moose Jaw Canucks, earning a 14-4 win and dropping a 10-5 decision at Mocon Baseball Diamonds, in Martensville, on June 13.
Even though Sask Five took one-out-of-two games, head coach Jason Ryden believed the Giants could have came away with the sweep, if it weren’t for costly mistakes.
“We felt that we should have probably won both games, but we booted the ball around too much in the second game and didn’t help our pitchers, who were pitching well, said Ryden.
In the first game, Moose Jaw struck first in the top of the second inning to take an early 1-0 lead.
However, the Giants responded with two runs of their own in the bottom the inning, to go on top.
The fourth inning is where Sask Five opened the game up by scoring eight runs to take a 10-1 lead.
Starting pitcher Hanson Mark was pitching a gem up to that point and Ryden really wanted his players to put a rally together, which they did.
“We needed to give him some support and I think it was just a matter of ‘lets get going, and we can do this’,” he said.
The first three batters reached base and the Giants generated a 6-1 lead, and Sask Five was looking for more runs with only one out.
Jaret Rowan came up to bat, for the second time of the inning, with the bases loaded and delivered a two-run single, which was one of the highlights of that rally.
Facing a nine-run deficit, the Canucks were able to cut into that lead, plating three runs in the top of the fifth inning. But, the Giants kept their foot on the gas and answered with four runs of their own, ending the game because the mercy rule came into effect.
What cost the Giants in the second game was the multiple errors the team committed, leading to unnecessary unearned runs.
Ryden believes that it was the lack of focus that led to those errors and that is something the team needs to clean up to be successful this season.
“We’re too good of a ball team to be booting it around for five unearned runs in a game,” he said. “If we didn’t have those, five unearned runs, then it would have been a closer game.”
One the positives of the game, according to Ryden, was the pitching, as he thought Bill Hosegood and Josh Goldbeck threw well in their respective innings of work.
The contest was tied 2-2 after three innings and the Canucks work looking to go up big in the fourth inning.
After a run came in to score on a one out bases loaded walk, Goldbeck (who was the starting catcher) relieved Hosegood.
It was actually Goldbeck’s first pitching appearance of the season, and he did a phenomenal job limiting the damage, as only one other run crossed the plate that half inning.
“He (Goldbeck) likes pitching and catching, so we got to get him the innings to get better and develop,” said Ryden.
Moose Jaw ended up scoring at least one run in the remaining innings and built a 10-2 lead after their half of the seventh inning.
It was a big task for Sask Five to make a comeback in that half inning, but, the Giants continued to battle and were able to score three runs with two out.
Usually runs late in a game lead to a win but that deficit was too large to overcome .
“We know we can generate runs, it’s just hard to get them all at once. In a close game those two or three runs we get in the seventh inning should win a ball game,” said Ryden.
The Giants will be playing a lot of doubleheaders this season and Ryden wants to see the team be focused for both games and not take that second game for granted.
“We just have to make sure the guys understand that they got to compete for two (games) and not just be happy with a split,” he said. “The expectation for us is that we should be coming in to try and win two games.
