Jeremy Johnson broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the fifth with a monstrous three run blast to left field and Yankee ace Logan Calanchie tossed a complete game to lead the Yorkton Yankees to a 6-1 victory over the visiting Langenburg Indians in Game One of the Best-of-Five SESBL Championship series Monday night.
The Yankees rode a wave of momentum into the opening game of the series after winning the 2015 SBA Senior 鈥楢鈥� Provincial title in North Battleford, where they outscored their opponents 45-14 in five games. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got some pretty good confidence coming back from Provincials,鈥� offered Yorkton player/assistant manager Mark Jacobs. 鈥淎ny time you win a Provincial title you鈥檙e confident and to win it the way we did by putting up some runs there, well that definitely builds confidence in all aspects of the game but definitely the batting.鈥�
The two teams traded runs early in the game before both Calanchie and Langenburg starter Tyler Hartung buckled down to keep the two offences at bay until the fifth inning. That was when Johnson, with runners on the corners, broke the deadlock with his three run shot over the left field wall.
Following the game Johnson told Yorkton This Week that all he was initially trying to do was make enough contact to score the runner from third base, however once he recognized a mistake he jumped all over it. 鈥淚 just wanted to get a hit and score our guy from third,鈥� mentioned Johnson, continuing, 鈥淟uckily their pitcher hung a curveball up there and I made good contact and it went over the wall.鈥�
Johnson鈥檚 homerun made it 4-1 for Yorkton. A pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth made it 6-1, however the game was much closer than the score indicated as the visiting Indians gave the Yankees all they could handle early on. 鈥淲e knew coming into this, especially in Game One, that there were going to bring their 鈥楢鈥� game,鈥� mentioned Jacobs, continuing, 鈥淭hey鈥檝e been playing good ball too, they just knocked off a very good Russell team and so we knew they鈥檇 be ready to go.
鈥淚t was all just a matter of whoever was going to be able to put up a crooked number first was the team that would win the game and thankfully it was us.鈥�
Up next
The Yankees travelled to Langenburg yesterday (Tuesday) for Game Two, however results were unavailable at press time.
Game Three is set for tonight (Wednesday) with the first pitch scheduled for 8:00p.m. at Jubilee Park.
Game four, if needed, will be Thursday night in Langenburg at 6:00p.m. while Game Five, once again if needed, will be Friday night at 8:00p.m. at Jubilee Park.
