Aaron Cadrin and his Beavers' teammates will aim to punch their ticket to the semi-finals of the NSRBL playoffs with their season on the line, Wednesday night in North Battleford. (Martin Martinson/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Martin Martinson

NSRBL Playoffs

N.B. Beavers host Glaslyn for winner-take-all Game 3

Jul 19, 2023 | 3:00 PM

The cards are on the table and the chips are all in Wednesday night, for Game 3 of the North Sask River Baseball League (NSRBL) quarter-finals series between the North Battleford Beavers and Glaslyn Orioles.

A tied series at a game apiece heading into the deciding contest at North Battleford’s Beaver Lions Stadium, the Highway 4 rivalry between the two clubs separated by just 45 minutes of pavement, has taken little time to reignite in the Orioles’ return to senior ball play this year.

After the Beavers won each of the two regular-season games between the teams this year, and brought the hammer down in Game 1 of the series with a 13-3 win, the Orioles responded with their backs against the wall in Game 2, with a 10-7 win of their own in Glaslyn to force the deciding Game 3, with the winner moving on to the league semi-finals.

Originally scheduled for Monday, the teams met for Game 3, but got just two and two-thirds innings completed prior to being rained out, and moved to tonight.

Outfielder and manager with the Beavers, Kyle Gregoire said now back at the home diamond, his team are feeling good heading into play.

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“The guys are pretty excited and we’re ready to play our best baseball when it counts,” Gregoire said. “The guys are firing on all cylinders here, and we had a good start Monday ahead of the rainout so hopefully we’re able to take what we did well in that game and bring it to this Game 3 tonight and come out with a win.”

Gregoire said the key to their success will be limiting the Orioles’ looks, especially early.

“I think as long as we can keep defensive runs to a minimum we’ll have good success,” he said. “We’ve put up runs in both games we’ve played so I think the bats are good and we just need to make sure we have sound defence and good pitching to start us off and we’ll have great success.”

The Orioles are currently in their first season back in the NSRBL in close to 15 years, since the late 2000s.

Infielder and manager with the Orioles, Jonah Hicks, said heading into their biggest game of the season yet, the team has been building to this moment.

“From the start of the year, our pitching’s gotten stronger and our defence has been pretty strong too,” he said. “As a team as a whole we’ve improved greatly from the start of the year and hopefully we can build on that going into next year and throughout these playoffs.

“The guys feel like we have a real good chance having won Game 2, so they’re excited and want to keep our ball season going.”

Semi-finals possibilities

The winner of Wednesday’s game will advance to the semi-finals of the NSRBL playoffs, joining the Standard Hill Lakers (1), Meadow Lake Sox (2), and Unity Cardinals (4) in the final four.

As the number three seed, a North Battleford win would see the Beavers advance to play the second-seeded Sox while the fourth-seeded Cardinals would play the top-seeded Lakers.

As the sixth seed, a Glaslyn win would see the Orioles play the Lakers, while Unity would get Meadow Lake.

Wednesday’s Game 3 between the Beavers and Orioles will be an earlier start than usual, with first pitch at 6:30 p.m.

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Martin.Martinson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @MartyMartyPxP1