It had to happen sooner or later, but for the Yorkton Yankees the 3-2 loss to the visiting Langenburg Indians still stings.
"You never want to lose," offered Yankees player/coach Mark Jacobs, following the 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Indians on Friday, May 23. "We made some mental mistakes and lost a couple of balls. I don't know, I don't think it was the lights. We just made some mistakes."
Usually when the Yankees make a mistake or two it doesn't matter.
Usually the Yankees had a considerable lead by that time, as the Yorkton club has been the cream of the crop in the SESBL in recent years, winning the last two SESBL regular season and playoff titles in convincing fashion. In fact, Yorkton's last regular season loss came nearly two years ago in the form of an 11-4 defeat to Willowbrook on Tuesday, July 3, 2012.
This time, however, the little mistakes that generally get swept under the carpet made all the difference, spoiling an amazing complete game effort by starting pitcher Logan Calanchie (7.0 IP, 8 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K) on the mound. "I feel bad for the guy, he did his job but we made a few mistakes defensively and couldn't come up with the clutch hits for him," said Jacobs. "Unfortunately he takes the loss but it's no indication of how he pitched. He threw as well as he normally does and he's one of the better pitchers in the league for sure."
The mistakes and errors weren't the only reason for the Yankees surprising loss on Friday night. The effort by the Langenburg Indians was also a major factor in the result; something that Jacobs quickly noted.
"They're a very good team, they're young for the most part and they've got some very good bats and arms," suggested Jacobs. "They're a tough team to play against and they showed it again tonight and any game against Langenburg, I don't care what time of the year it is, whether it's the first game of the year or the last, they're always a tough team to beat."
Jacobs then went on to mention that, while his club may have lost 3-2, that he still has complete confidence in every player on the team and that the loss was just a little bump in the long road that is the 2014 SESBL season. "Yeah we lost, but I was still confident with the nine guys we had out there. We were also missing a few guys but I was still confident with the nine guys we had."
Next up
The Yorkton Yankees were in Melville on Monday and, despite having to call on team manager Brian Trollope early on to fill an empty space on the field (the Yankees started the game with just eight players and Trollope), walked away with a 6-4 victory. Unfortunately statistics were unavailable at press time.
The next action for the Yorkton Yankees (2-1) will be tonight when they take on their "crosstown rivals" the Yorkton Orioles (0-2). Game time is set for 8:00pm at Jubilee Park.
