Nothing seems to be going right for the Parkland Expos 鈥楢AA鈥� midget baseball team at the moment as the midget Expos saw their record fall to 3-10 while their losing streak rose to eight games in Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League (SPBL) with a pair of losses to both the Northwest Prairie Pirates (19-6 and 12-2) and Muenster Red Sox (3-1 and 9-2) this past weekend.
Muenster leads the SPBL 鈥楢AA鈥� Division with a sparkling 13-1 record closely followed by the Saskatoon Diamondbacks at 11-4.
The Regina Athletics sit in third place with a record of 9-6 while the 6-5 Saskatoon Cubs round out the top four.
The Regina Expos (8-7), 麻豆传媒AVeast Legacy Twins (8-9), Swift Current Indians (6-10) and Northwest Prairie Pirates (4-8) also find themselves ahead of the Parkland Expos in fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth respectively while the Saskatoon Giants (2-10) find themselves in last place, half a game back of Parkland.
Lacklustre in Lloyd
A very early morning, a six-plus hour bus trip, missing Caleb Bymak and Ryan Krupski and facing a tenacious Northwest Prairie Pirates ball team proved to be too much for the Parkland Expos to overcome on Saturday afternoon in Lloydminster as the 鈥楢AA鈥� Expo defence was nearly non-existent in a 19-6 Game One mercy rule defeat at the hands of the Northwest Prairie Pirates.
Parkland starting pitcher Kholton Shewchuk - who spent last season as a Prairie Pirate before opting to play with the newly formed Parkland Expos this season 鈥� got the start on the mound for the Expos against his former team but lasted just two and two-third innings surrendering 12 runs (just four earned) on nine hits while striking out two for the loss. 鈥淪hewchuk pitched a really good game but his defence wasn鈥檛 behind him,鈥� Parkland Expo head coach Tony Black told Yorkton This Week after the game. 鈥淗e threw the ball well but when your defence makes that many mistakes there is nothing you can do about that.鈥�
The mistakes that Black referred to occurred mainly in the third inning when the Prairie Pirates scored 13 runs on seven errors to turn a 4-2 game into a 17-2 catastrophe. 鈥淲e had that one bad inning in the first game and they scored 13 runs, but we had nine potential outs and made several errors,鈥� said Black, adding that while the defence was atrocious the offence was steady. 鈥淥ur offence was there.
鈥淐ole Rathgeber hit two out of the park, Kyle (Rathgeber) went 2-for-4 in the game while Shewchuk also got two hits.鈥�
Game Two in Lloydminster was much the same as Game One with the Expos鈥� defence struggling to shut down the Northwest offence, surrendering two runs in the first, one in the second, two in the third, four in the fourth and three in the fifth while managing to score just two of their own runs in the top of the fifth in a 12-2 mercy rule loss.
Cole Rathgeber shouldered the loss for the Expos in Game Two, going three and two-third innings, allowing nine runs (eight earned) on six hits and six walks while striking out just two batters before handing the ball over to twin brother Kyle who pitched one complete inning but gave up three runs (one earned) on a pair of walks and a hit.
Shewchuk led the Expo offence in Game Two with his second consecutive 2-for-3 performance while both Tyson Black (1-for-3) and Taylor Elmy (0-for-2) picked up RBIs in the loss.
Sunday losses
The Parkland Expos 鈥楢AA鈥� midget baseball team knew they were in tough on Sunday afternoon against the league leading Muenster Red Sox, however the Expos - still stinging from the two beatings they took at the hands of the Prairie Pirates one day earlier 鈥� proved that when their defence is strong they can compete with anyone, dropping Game One by a close 3-1 score.
Starting pitcher Jordan Bieber put together his strongest outing of the season going six innings and giving up just three runs on six hits and four walks while striking out three Muenster batters.
Unfortunately for Bieber his Red Sox counterpart Carter Frerichs had a stronger performance, giving up just one run on five hits and three walks over six innings before turning the ball over to closer Thomas Lessmeister who earned the save with a scoreless seventh inning.
Cole Rathgeber and Jake Holinaty led the Parkland offence in the first game against Muenster as Cole went 2-for-2 with the lone Expo RBI while Holinaty scored the only run and was 2-for-3 in the loss.
Game Two saw Parkland ace Tyson Black take to the mound and pitch well going five and two-third innings and giving up six runs (four earned) on six hits and two walks while striking out eight Muenster batters in what eventually ended up being a 9-2 loss.
Kaito Farquharson went 1-for-2 with a double and a run scored in the loss while Cole Rathgeber (two walks) and Tyson Black (1-for-3) both picked up an RBI for the Expos, who were without Caleb Bymak and Tannum Wyonzek for the Muenster series, both who would have helped the team out both offensively and defensively. 鈥淲e missed Wyonzek today and Bymak is out and that鈥檚 definitely going to be a big hole in the outfield but our guys stepped up to the plate and played really well,鈥� mentioned Tony Black, continuing, 鈥淭annum is a good ball player but he had prior commitments for today so we had to go without him.
Bymak is another hitter that you don鈥檛 want to lose in your lineup and it was unfortunate that he wasn鈥檛 here for us but at the same time he had a great opportunity to try out for the Sask Football program and you can鈥檛 turn down an opportunity like that.鈥�
Next action
The next action for the 鈥楢AA鈥� Parkland Expos (3-10) of the SPBL 鈥楢AA鈥� Division will be tonight as they travel to Regina to take on the Regina Expos (8-7).
They鈥檒l then be in action this Saturday and Sunday with a total of four home games. Saturday the Expos are in Melville to take on the visiting Saskatoon Diamondbacks (11-4) for a pair of games at 2:00p.m. and 4:00p.m. at Pirie Field before welcoming the Saskatoon Cubs (6-5) to Yorkton鈥檚 Jubilee Park Sunday afternoon at 1:00p.m. and 3:00p.m. respectively.
