The big winner in Friday’s showdown between the senior AAA Tigers Black and the junior AAA Tigers Orange was St. Albert baseball.
The team rosters were dominated by graduates of the St. Albert rep division.
“Of the 16 [junior-age] players we have on the Orange, 14 of those guys came through the St. Albert minor baseball program so it’s a credit to what those guys do over there,” said Bob Cruthers, coach for the Tigers Orange.
Losing 10-2 to an equal number of St. Albert products with Tigers Black at Legion Memorial Park was still OK for the first game of the season in the Sunburst Baseball League.
“We were happy with their performance and hopefully it will get better as the year goes on,” Cruthers said. “We have a few guys who have played lots of midget AAA but obviously didn’t have a team to play for the last couple of years so we’re knocking off some rust on a few of the guys.”
The Tigers Orange have replaced the St. Albert Tabbies, who didn’t have enough players to field a team last year after posting a 2-4 record at the 2009 senior AAA provincials.
Next year the North Central Alberta Baseball League is expected to add the junior squad to its ranks.
“We’re trying to revamp this junior program,” said Cruthers of the feeder team for the senior Tigers. “It’s all about getting back on our feet again and developing some infrastructure so we‘re able to go into that league. It’s a little more detailed. The Sunburst is basically you throw your name in there and because you say you’re with the Tigers, you’re in. With this [North Central] league we’ve got a few more hoops to jump through but we’ll have more time to do it now that we’ve got the team started.”
Kurtus Millar, the Tigers Black coach and vice-president of developmental operations for the Tigers Baseball Association, was impressed with the level of play by the juniors in their league opener.
“They looked not bad. They looked a little nervous at the start of the game, which is understandable, but then they seemed to calm down. They took better at-bats and better swings,” Millar said. “It’s going to take them a bit to get comfortable in the league but once they do they will be just fine.”
Cruthers agreed with Millar’s assessment.
“Some of the guys were a little nervous going out there for the first time and obviously playing in the calibre of the Sunburst league was a learning curve for them but now they know it’s going to be tough. We’ll be in tough all year because of that concept but we’re up for the challenge,” Cruthers said.
Hayden Chies, the starting pitcher, faced 28 batters and gave up eight runs (two earned) on seven hits. He struck-out five, walked four and plunked three Tigers.
“He was a little jacked up with emotion. He was a little wild but when he calmed down he threw actually very well,” Millar said.
Chies recently threw a complete game at the Canadian College Baseball Conference championships in Kamloops for the gold-medal winning Prairie Baseball Academy Dawgs of Lethbridge.
“I don’t think it was a case of nerves [against the Tigers]. He was probably a little too pumped up to be back in his hometown again. He hasn’t pitched here for a few years,” Cruthers said. “Once he threw a few pitches and tired himself a little bit, he was probably a better pitcher.”
Earning the start for the Tigers Black was Sean Maguire, a veteran lefty who threw 97 pitches over 6-1/3 innings. He fanned eight batters and walked two while surrendering four hits. One run was unearned.
“He threw very well. I don’t think those guys are used to seeing a pitcher like him,” Millar said.
Craig Tomas swung a big bat for the Tigers Black. He belted a single, double and triple and drove home three runs.
Brandon Barr also collected two hits and Jessy Beley scored two runs.
“We had some pretty good performances from Maguire and Tomas. We also had some good hits later on in the game. Beley hit one off the fence. Joe Carr had an RBI single [in the fourth inning to make it 5-0],” Millar said. “I told the boys there is no way we can lose to our junior team so get after it and they certainly did.”
The Tigers used basically the same line-up that lost 9-2 earlier in the week in Fort Saskatchewan against the Athletics, the 2009 national champions and last year’s provincial finalists.
“The turning point in that game was we had bases loaded with nobody out and we didn’t score. At least against the Orange we seemed to take advantage of our runners,” Millar said. “We basically played two pretty different games. The first one we were kind of sloppy defensively and we didn’t swing the bats. The second game was the exact opposite. If we play like we did [against the juniors] we’ll be just fine.”
Friday at 8 p.m. the Tigers host the Athletics at Legion park.
The juniors were in Fort Saskatchewan on Tuesday but the score was unavailable at press time. Saturday they entertain the Red Deer Riggers, the 2010 provincial champions, in a doubleheader. They also play the visiting Red Deer Stags twice Sunday. Game times are 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
