The 鈥楢AA鈥� Parkland Expos had a rough go of it at the 2015 Midget 鈥楢AA鈥� Provincial Championship in Melville this past weekend.
The Expos went 0-4 with losses to the Saskatoon Diamondbacks (14-10), 麻豆传媒AVeast Legacy Twins (9-4), Regina Expos (14-4) and Saskatoon Cubs (16-7) to officially wrap up their 2015 Saskatchewan Midget 鈥楢AA鈥� season. 鈥淲e just didn鈥檛 play strong enough defence to support our pitching and really that was the difference,鈥� offered Expos co-coach Aaron Elmy following the conclusion of Parkland鈥檚 final game of the tournament. 鈥淪ome of it showed up on the scoreboard as errors and some plays that we just didn鈥檛 make.
鈥淥ur pitchers did fine and there were some positives from this weekend for sure, but our defence struggled.鈥�
The Expos offence also had some trouble at times throughout the weekend, including leaving a plethora of runners stranded in nearly every game. 鈥淚 think we stranded at least 10 in the first game against the D-backs,鈥� mentioned the Expos鈥� other coach Tony Black, adding that Parkland could not come up with the big hit when needed. 鈥淥ur offence just couldn鈥檛 come up with the clutch hits this weekend.鈥�
However not everything was bad for the Expos on the weekend. The team was able to experience a high level tournament format system; something they鈥檒l face when they host the 2015 Western Canada Baseball Championships from August 21-23. 鈥淎ny time you鈥檙e playing in a tournament format it鈥檚 a step towards preparing yourself for the next level as Westerns is also a tournament forma. It鈥檚 also good preparation to see what level of baseball you need to play at to be successful,鈥� mentioned Elmy, adding that another positive was that the Expos鈥� coaching staff was also able to get another look at players that they are contemplating picking up for Westerns. 鈥淭he other advantage of having the Provincial tournament here is that we were able to look at other players that we鈥檝e already seen and see more of them so that we can make some decisions on who we might want to call to see if they want to come play with us at Westerns.鈥�
Next up
The 鈥楢AA鈥� Parkland Expos will be taking a week off to recharge from Provincial play before getting back on the diamond to practice ahead of the 2015 Western Canada Baseball Championships (midget 鈥楢AA鈥� division), which will take place in Yorkton from August 21-23.
