Trappers finding their groove early in season

“We didn’t get a couple bounces tonight that could have went our way.”

In the first half of the double-header, the bounces did go the Trappers way, as they pounded Edam 14-4.

In their first game of the season, they won 12-1 over defending champion Wilkie.

Clearly, scoring runs hasn’t proved too difficult as a whole. With an average of 10 runs per game so far, the team is second-best in the league.

“Our offence is really booming right now,” Benoit said. “There’s lots of good things we did tonight [against Mervin too]…battling back like that. We had bases loaded three or four times today. [If] we just cash in those runs, which will come later in the season, it’s a totally different ball game.”

The Trappers also didn’t dress their strongest lineup against the Flyers, which played a factor.

Impact players like Andrew Hudec and Mike George only played for part of the second game, but were each a big part of the offence in the 14-4 win. Hudec went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and George went 1-for-5 at the plate but scored three times. Ty Fedler didn’t play at all in the second game either, and he went 3-for-5 with two RBIs in the win over Edam.

“We had basically almost two different teams in there,” George said. “Lots of subs moved in. We’ve got lots of guys on our team so that’s awesome and we just didn’t hit the ball as well as we did the first game.”

George is one of the vets on the team and he grew up playing baseball with a household name: Andrew Albers.

The North Battleford native has 79 innings of Major League Baseball action under his belt and is currently pitching for the Atlanta Braves AAA affiliate, the Gwinnett Braves.

“He and I were teammates all the way up,” George said. “I played up until I was about 18 years old or 19. So that was close to 15 years [ago] almost.

“We’ve got a bunch of young guys and some older fellas too that are good ball players and are just kind of getting back in the groove. It’s been awesome. I missed it, that’s for sure.”

George added that he’s been impressed by the midget players adjustment to senior ball so far.

“They’re men now. Lots of them went to colleges here and so on so they’ve matured and they’ve been through the ringer,” George said. “There’s little things that we’ll be able to teach each other as we go through the season but they’ve been awesome so far.”

Benoit likewise said he’s appreciated the leadership guys like George have been able to offer.

“Those guys bring a lot to our team and they have great leadership skills,” Benoit said. “Those guys are good guys. It’s a building process, right? New team kind of thing. It’s a process. It’s great having those guys out.”

The Trappers next hit the diamond on Thursday with a road game in Meadow Lake against the Sox, who are 1-1 so far.

Meanwhile, the North Battleford Beavers tied high-flying Lloydminster Twins on the road on Tuesday night 9-9. Lloydminster came in with a 2-0 record, while the Beavers were 0-1.

The Beavers’ next game is also Thursday when they’re on the road to take on Edam.

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

@NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

Trappers finding their groove early in season

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