Pictured left to right: Declan Woloshyn (#5) and Brandon Gregoire (#44) of the North Battleford Beavers pose for a picture with Gavin Nolin (#11) and Matt Hudec (#18) of the Battlefords Trappers, following last year's all-Battlefords season opener. (Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Martin Martinson

NSRBL opening pitch

Beavers/Trappers ready for spring baseball season

Jun 7, 2021 | 5:19 PM

The North Sask. River Baseball League (NSRBL) season will swing into action this week, with both the North Battleford Beavers, and Battlefords Trappers set to open their seasons Tuesday.

Each coming off a promising 2020, the two local senior baseball clubs enter the 2021 campaign with plenty of similarities and shared optimism for what’s to come in the season ahead.

North Battleford Beavers

The Beavers are coming off a season to remember in 2020, which saw the team make a run to the league finals for the first time since 1997, before ultimately falling to the Lloyd Twins in the league’s best-of-three championship series.

Beavers’ player-coach, Kyle Gregoire said while it was tough to swallow coming out on the wrong end of the finals series last year, having gained some added perspective in the months since, he’s confident the experience can only help the group as a positive moving forward.

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“Obviously it was bitter sweet last year not to win at the end of the day, but just to go as far as we did I think we’re happy with what we were able to accomplish,” Gregoire said. “Especially in a year where there was a lot of unknowns on if we were even going to be able to play, we’re happy with how things went overall and hopefully we’re able to make another run for [a championship] this year.”

The Beavers will see much of their same roster return from last year, outside of two contributors, in Ricky Cey and Cameron Halter. Returning however, remains a strong core including 2020 team MVP Damon Schaefer, and sluggers Kyle Palmer and Connor Neave, in addition to Gregoire.

Schaefer set the tone for the team both at the plate and on the mound, adding a team-best .571 batting average while also pitching 10 strikeouts, good for second on the squad. Palmer meanwhile led the team in both runs (seven) and slugging percentage (.833), while Neeve had a team-best six RBI (runs batted in), and Gregoire tallied the team’s lone home run.

“I would say we have a pretty good mix, with probably our hitting and fielding being our biggest upside, though we should be able to compete well with our pitching and some good runners as well,” Gregoire said. “I think overall we have a good balance to compete every game we’re playing this year.”

Tuesday the Beavers will open their season on the road versus Standard Hill, who they beat in the semifinals of the playoffs last season. First pitch will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at 7:30 p.m. the Beavers will host their home-opener at Beaver Lions Stadium versus the cross-town rival, Battlefords Trappers.

Thursday’s game versus the Trappers will have a capacity limit of 150 people.

Battlefords Trappers

On the other side of town, expectations are also high for the Trappers this season.

Despite falling to the Beavers in an all-local quarterfinals matchup in the postseason last year, Trappers player-coach Gavin Nolin said they remain confident they’ll be able to break through for a playoff run of their own as early as this year with a strong returning core this season.

“The core of us here are all still pretty young, but most of us have now been in the league for four or five years, so we’ve kind of got our feet underneath us,” Nolin said. “We always compete, but we haven’t quite been able to break through the wall, having lost in the first round of the playoffs the last couple of years, so hopefully this is the year we can do a little bit more damage.”

Boasting an explosive offence, in addition to Nolin – who has established himself as a yearly MVP favourite – the Trappers core also includes names such as last year’s team MVP nominee, Bob Hudec, 2019 league home run leader, Mike Ross and starting ace, Jared Schmidt.

In just his second season with the team, Hudec finished top three in team slugging percentage (.625) and batting average (.458), while also posting the second-best ERA (earned run average) on the club, at 2.15. Ross meanwhile has hit a league-best four home runs over the last two years, while Schmidt’s 17 strikeouts were best on the team in 2020.

Nolin said perhaps as much as anything, the team’s level of success this year will come down to their ability to stay healthy after some key injuries at inopportune times last year.

“We had a little bit of injury problems with a few guys last year, but if guys can stay healthy I think this year we can do some real damage,” he said. “We’re looking forward to getting back out there, and hopefully we can get a nice turnout for our opener on [June 8].”

The Trappers will open their season at home against the Kindersley Stallions at 7:30 p.m., followed by their matchup Thursday versus the Beavers at 7:30 p.m.

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1