The Sask Five 18U AAA Giants recently put together a five-game win streak to improve their record to 9-2 on the season.
Two of those wins came in a doubleheader against the Southeast Twins on June 19 at Mocon Baseball Diamonds. The Giants picked up a 9-8 win in extra innings, during the first game, and won 15-5 in five innings in the second game.
The Giants showed some dramatic flare in the first game as it came right down to the wire. Sask Five trailed 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh inning, and with two out and a runner on second base Chantze Pauls came up to the plate looking to provide a spark.
He ended up smoking a double into the outfield and Sask Five coach Jason Ryden was glad to see Pauls come up big in that situation.
“We had some timely hitting, which was good. Chantze Pauls, he came through for us with the double (driving in the tieing run) which was great,” he said.
In extra innings, each team started their respective half-inning with runners already on first and second base. The Twins scored two runs in their half.
However, the Giants, again, came up with some timely hit in the bottom half of the eighth inning.
Oakland Flodell hit a leadoff double, as a run came in to score and the Giants continued with situational hitting which impressed Ryden.
“We put a squeeze bunt to score that run to tie it, as Kai (Ryden) bunt singled and then the intentional walk to Brodie (Guenther) to load the bases was great,” he said.
After the intentional walk with no outs, Josh Goldbeck came up big in a clutch situation by driving a hit through the infield to bring home the winning run.
Multiple players came up big in key situations throughout the game.
In the top of the sixth inning, Brodie Guenther, who started the game at shortstop, made the switch to the mound, replacing relief pitcher Maddix Mathies, with the bases loaded and two out in a one-run game. Guenther came up huge in a very tough situation, striking out the batter he faced to keep his team in the game.
“Brodie is the leader on the team. He’s had a lot of success wherever he has played ball and we really need to him step up in those situations,” said Ryden. Whether it’s defensively or whether it’s offensively, he’s going to lead our team the right way.”
Even though Mathies didn’t finish that sixth inning, Ryden thought he pitched very well overall, despite an inning where four straight errors committed by Sask Five’s defence led to four runs.
“I think that everyone felt that we let Mathies down there with all of those errors, and we shouldn’t have. I think we owned it and we owed it to him to get ourselves back in that game,” said Ryden.
In the second game, Sask Five scored nine runs in the first inning to take a commanding lead. Ryden mentioned that the Twins had to play another doubleheader the following day which forced Southeast to use inexperience pitchers.
“There was a young kid on the mound, for them. He could throw really well but he just wasn’t hitting his spots where he needed to, but that’s the game of baseball. One game we could be in that same situation,” said Ryden.
Overall, Ryden was happy to see the offence click the way it did and he noticed that the team played with confidence, which led to the win. The mercy rule came into effect, as the Giants were up by ten runs after five innings.
Sask Five continued to play well on June 21, earning 8-6 and 1-0 wins, respectively,during a doubleheader on the road against the Saskatoon Giants.
In that 1-0 win, Sask Five starting pitcher Chantze Pauls had an outstanding game, throwing six and a third innings, while picking up 12 strikeouts.
Sask Five had a heavy home schedule to start the season and Ryden expects the team to have the same success on the road.
“I don’t want to think that we play better at home or better away, we just have to approach each game as a game to win, do our best and go from there,” said Ryden.
