When you want to get serious about defending a league championship, you bring in a respected coach with discipline and systems.
The Estevan Tap House Wolves have repeated as Harbourne Cup champions in no small part due to the addition of veteran hockey and baseball coach Tom Copeland.
“He really brought a different sense of smarts to the game,” said Wolves veteran Jolen Lingenbach. “There were a lot of tactics that were different for us this year that he was able to bring, so that was a big thing…
“The guys came to play all weekend.”
LIngenbach said the tournament win was also due to their top players stepping up at the right time for them.
The Wolves defeated the Oxbow Chiefs 3-0 in the final at Kenosee Sunday evening to claim their second consecutive Saskota Baseball League tournament final victory. Getting the save was former Southeast Performance Pump Twins pitcher Brett McMurchy, who was a force on the mound this season.
“That was probably one of the biggest boosts nearly any team got this year,” said Lingenbach. “Brett came in, and to add pitching in this league is huge. It’s at a deficit. When you get a good guy like that who’s played some high level ball, it’s huge. He comes in and confident and can fill the zone and that’s a big thing for sure.”
The game against Oxbow was the rematch of last year’s Harbourne Cup final, which the Wolves also won.
“It was kind of nerve-wracking because they were the top seed this year and everyone kind of saw how good of a hitting team they are,” said Lingenbach. “We had a one run game and a two run game against them this year so we knew they were a really good team and we would need a lot of good pitching to keep them down.”
Jordan Fieber pitched most of the final against the Oxbow and did an excellent job on the mound.
“We knew we’d have to be on our A game in order to beat them,” Lingenbach said.
The hitting came out for the team, including veteran Wolves player Dylan LaFrentz.
“He stepped up in the final with a big home run to give us an extra run on the board. He’s always there for us and there’s no doubt that when the time comes for us, he’s going to step up,” Lingenbach said. He also mentioned Calder Clark as someone who helped out at the plate this year as a leadoff hitter.
Along the way, the Wolves defeated Redvers 3-1 in the semifinal and had gone 2-1 in the round robin, including a 7-1 win at home Friday night over the Kenosee Cubs.
The win means there’s an extra bit of confidence for the Wolves, who will be hosting senior AA Tier 2 provincials Aug. 10-12 at Lynn Prime Park. Two of the teams that will also be at provincials are the Chiefs and Carlyle Cardinals.
“Those are two really solid clubs and it’s a lot of fun now that we get to host them at our tournament now,” said Lingenbach. “We won’t see them in the round robin play but it’ll be a lot of fun because we’ve beaten them and they’ve beaten us and it’s going to be a lot of jockeying back and forth when we play them. It’s really exciting and it’ll be a really fun time I think.”
The gold medal game at provincials is scheduled for 2 p.m. Aug. 12.
