The Southeast Performance Pump Twins may be able to take some solace in the fact that although they didn’t have a good end to the season in the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League in midget AAA, they were able to find some success in the midget AA provincials.
The Twins lost 4-1 to the Northwest Prairie Pirates in Unity Sunday in a match for the Midget AA Tier I provincial title. The silver medal marks the bittersweet end to the season for the Twins.
“It made us feel a lot better after that game with Weyburn,” said Twins assistant coach Kent Phillips. The Twins started out the tournament with an 11-4 loss to the Weyburn Beavers Friday.
“There was a lot of emotions there with the players there that were on our team last year and of course the players on Weyburn that are on our team. It was more of an emotional game than it needed to be but it is what it is.”
The early loss effectively made the rest of their games must-wins to stay alive. They did just that through the rest of the round robin Saturday, beating the Regina Blue Jays 13-5 and demolishing the Parkland Expos 19-0 to go 2-1 in the round robin.
“We played really good defence and the bats were on fire,” said Phillips. “And of course the pitchers were doing what they did all year for us, and that was throw strikes. The bats gave us the run support…
“Any time everything is going right, it’s a lot easier to play at ease and not so uptight. I think that’s what it is. When the batts are rolling it’s a lot easier for the pitchers. We’re getting baserunners and nobody’s making errors… it’s a lot easier to play with confidence when things are going your way.”
With three teams tied at 2-1, the Twins escaped the tiebreaker due to run differential and skated through to the semifinal Sunday.
“The focus for the weekend was making it to Sunday,” Phillips said. “If you’ve made it to Sunday, that means you played well enough on the weekend that anything can happen in that final game.”
In that semifinal, they defeated the Lumsden Cubs 17-2.
That set up a match with the Pirates, who were the other midget AAA team that had dropped down to the AA provincial tournament and had been undefeated going into the gold medal game.
“We faced a pitcher that was probably the best we’ve faced all year,” said Phillips, referring to Jaydon Gartner. Earlier in the regular season, the Twins had swept the Pirates in two games at Lynn Prime Field by scores of 14-2 and 8-6.
“When we played them in league play he was kind of rehabbing off some arm issues, so he wasn’t throwing like he did on the weekend,” Phillips said. “He was a Canada Cup player so obviously he’s a good player.”
Gartner also drove in three of the team’s four runs in the game.
Although this season is over for the Twins, Phillips said he wouldn’t be surprised if one or two members of the Twins get called up to play with the Pirates at Westerns, which are taking place in La Broquerie, Man. later in August.
