Sign up for the battlefordsNOW newsletter

Beavers, Sox squeak into NSRBL playoffs

Jul 7, 2017 | 5:00 PM

The North Battleford Beavers and Meadow Lake Sox battled it out all season long for the Albers Division title, but after all was said and done it didn’t amount to much, as both have qualified for the post-season and now face uphill battles.

The Beavers are the seventh seed for the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League playoffs, despite clinching the division with a 7-6-1 record, while the Sox are the eighth and final seed with a 7-7 record.

There are still two regular season games remaining on the league schedule, but those games involve teams out of the playoff picture.

The Beavers must get set for the second-seeded Unity Cardinals, who won the Colliar division with a 10-4 record. They were one of just two teams to get to double digit wins.

Unity also has two pitchers in the top-five in the league in earned-run-average, in Rhett Feser and Blake Robertson. Feser had a 3-2 record this season with 41 strikeouts (most in the league) in 29 innings and a 1.93 ERA. He also proved valuable at the plate with 18 hits, fifth-best in the league. Robertson had a 3-1 record with 29 strikeouts in 27 innings and a 2.85 ERA.

Those pitchers helped the Cardinals allow a league-best 36 runs in 14 games. That being said, they only scored 79 runs this season, compared to the Beavers 97.

North Battleford is led at the plate by Brad Eischen, Darvin Scheidl, and Kyle Palmer, each of whom batted .400 or better in at least 25 at bats. Those three were also first, second, and third on the team in hits. Palmer is also eighth in the league in runs-batted-in with 12.

They have also relied heavily on Palmer on the mound, as he is sixth in the league in ERA at 2.88 and carried a 3-2 record this season. Palmer has played the third-most innings this season, at 34.

The one meeting between the Beavers and Cardinals in the regular season was on June 22, when the Cardinals won 6-2.

The Sox, meanwhile, are hoping to take down the league’s best in the Border City Blue Jays, who went 12-2 this season.

Their offence was one of a kind, putting up 129 runs in 14 games. 

Reuben Baker batted a ridiculous .594 this season and is second in the league in hits with 19. His batting average is tops in the league among batters with at least 20 at bats.

Teammate Landon Noyes wasn’t lagging far behind, either. Noyes posted a .514 batting average and also had 19 hits. He is also in the top-10 in RBI -in with 11.

On the mound, Jared Coghill had a season to remember. He went 5-0 with a 1.40 ERA, second-best in the NSRBL, and had 38 strikeouts, also second-best. 

The Sox have a strikeout ace of their own in Quincey Winkler, who had 35 strikeouts in just 19.1 innings, but he also carried a 5.43 ERA and walked a league-high 17 batters.

Kevin Gerwing and Jordan Oystrick have provided optimism at the plate for Meadow Lake, with Gerwing batting .475 on the year and Oystrick .419. Gerwing is tied for second in the league with 19 hits, and Oystrick has just one less at 18. Gerwing’s 12 RBIs also rank him just outside the top-five.

In the regular season, the one meeting between Meadow Lake and Border City did not go particularly well, as the Blue Jays won 11-1.

Specific dates for the games have not been set yet but the playoffs are scheduled to begin on July 10.

All first-round series are a best-of-three and must be completed by July 18, with round two beginning the next day.

 

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11