An undermanned Parkland Expos midget 鈥楢AA鈥� baseball team went 1-1 this past weekend, splitting a twin-bill with the Saskatoon Giants on Saturday afternoon trouncing the Giants 11-0 in Yorkton in Game One before dropping Game Two 11-9 in Melville.
The weekend split leaves the Expos in ninth spot in the 10-team SPBL 鈥楢AA鈥� Division with a 6-16 record, just ahead of their most recent opponents the Saskatoon Giants, who hold down last place in the league at 4-12.
Muenster leads the 鈥楢AA鈥� league with a 17-4 record just ahead of the Saskatoon Diamondbacks at 15-6. The Saskatoon Cubs (9-7) sit in third place with the Regina Athletics rounding out the top four at 10-9.
The Northwest Prairie Pirates and Regina Expos are tied for fifth and sixth respectively with identical 10-10 records with the 麻豆传媒AVeast Legacy Twins (8-11) and Swift Current Indians (6-11) rounding out the top eight.
Paint it, Black
A five run second inning and a six run third powered the Parkland Expos to an impressive 11-0 win over the visiting Saskatoon Giants on Saturday afternoon in Yorkton, however it was the arm of Tyson Black that really caused fits for the Giants as Black picked up the win with the most dominant pitching performance of the 2015 SPBL season.
Black surrendered just one hit 鈥� a two out, two strike double to Ethan Godson in the fourth inning 鈥� over five complete innings in which he struck out 10 Saskatoon batters to fall just one pitch short of a perfect game.
Black also led the Expo offence in Game One going 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs to help his own cause. Kyle Rathgeber and Kaito Farquharson also both went 2-for-3 with both players registering two RBIs.
Solo RBIs were picked up by Jake Holinaty (1-for-1, walk), Caleb Bymak (1-for-3, double), Taylor Elmy (1-for-3) and Matt Wilgosh (1-for-3).
Strike zone struggles
As strong as the pitching was in Game One, in Game Two it was equally as weak as the Expos carried a four run lead into the sixth inning at 9-5 only to allow six Giant runs on just two hits in the final two frames to fall 11-9.
Three Parkland pitchers combined for 10 walks in Game Two as the entire pitching staff struggled with the strike zone. Starter Kyle Rathgeber walked five batters over 4.2 innings of work while surrendering five runs (two earned) on six hits and four strikeouts.
Relief pitcher Caleb Bymak also struggled, recording just two outs while giving up four earned runs on three walks and one hit.
Kaito Farquharson picked up the loss, surrendering two runs on two hits and a walk over 1.2 innings of relief work. 鈥淲e should have won Game Two but the walks hurt us,鈥� Expos co-coach Tony Black said following the game. 鈥淥ur pitching struggled in the last couple innings.
鈥淭hree of our starting pitchers weren鈥檛 available and would have made a difference in Game Two.鈥�
But while the pitching left much to be desired in Game Two, the offence remained its steady self with six different Expos batters picking up a hit.
Six different hitters also registered at least one RBI in the loss as Black once again led the offensive charge with a 1-for-2, one walk, one double, two RBI performance while Farquharson (1-for-4), Rathgeber (1-for-4), Elmy (1-for-4), Wilgosh (1-for-2, two walks) and Tannum Wyonzek (1-for-4) all picked up solo RBIs in the loss.
POTW
One member of the Parkland Expos came away with a weekly award last week as Cole Rathgeber was named the Boston Pizza Player-of-the-Week for week seven of the Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League.
Rathgeber went 9-for-15 at the plate with three triples, four runs scored, six walks, five RBIs and a stolen base.
He also pitched 5.2 innings giving up eight hits, five earned runs and three walks while striking out five batters in an 8-5 win over the third place Saskatoon Cubs.
Up next
The next action for the Parkland Expos 鈥楢AA鈥� team will be this Sunday when they visit the 麻豆传媒AVeast Legacy Twins for a doubleheader at Estevan鈥檚 Lynn Prime Park.
