The Parkland Expos Midget 鈥楢AA鈥� Baseball Club embarked on one of their longest road trips of the season this past weekend, first traveling to Lloydminster for a doubleheader against the Northwest Prairie Pirates on Saturday before heading to Saskatoon on Sunday for a twin bill against the Saskatoon Giants.
The hope was that the Expos could improve upon their 1-1 record earned last weekend in Estevan, and early on things looked good as they scored one run in the first inning in Game One against the Pirates.
A pair of runs in second made it 3-0 Parkland, however the Pirates managed to chip away for two of their own in the second to make it 3-2.
A single run in the fourth gave the Expos a 4-2 lead, but three Pirates runs in the bottom of the inning gave the hosts their first lead at 5-4; a lead they held until the top of the sixth when the Expos exploded for eight runs highlighted by a Cole Rathgeber homerun.
A single Expos run in the seventh made it a 13-5 final and moved the Expos above .500 for the second time this season.
Midget 鈥楢AA鈥� rookie Grady Hawkins picked up the win giving up just three walks over three innings while striking out three, while Kaito Farquharson got the start but struggled with his command, surrendering five runs (three earned) on six walks and one hit with five strikeouts.
Cole Rathgeber (1-for-4) led the offence with the homerun while twin Kyle drove in three and went 2-for-4.
The Expos followed Game One鈥檚 strong performance up with a weak Game Two effort, giving up runs in the first four innings en route to a 10-5 loss.
Kyle Rathgeber shouldered the loss for the Expos, giving up six runs on seven walks and four hits while striking out two. Joseph Sliva led the Parkland offence offensively going 2-for-2 with one RBI in the loss.
A day later and the Expos continued their downhill slide, dropping a pair of games to the Saskatoon Giants by scores of 13-4 and 13-7.
Expos ace Tyson Black didn鈥檛 have his best stuff on the day in Game One, surrendering 11 runs (seven earned) on eight hits and three walks while striking out four over 5.1 innings of work while the Farquharson brothers Kaito and Gregor generated most of the Parkland offence. Kaito went 2-for-3 while younger brother Gregor was 3-for-4.
The second game saw the host Giants score one in the first, four in the second and eight in the fourth to hand the Expos their third loss in a row and fourth on the season.
Luke Walters took the loss giving up nine runs on five hits and three walks while striking out two over three innings while Cole Rathgeber and Tyson Black led the offence. Rathgeber went 2-for-4 with two RBI while Black was the same, 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI.
The next action for the Parkland Expos (2-4) will be this Saturday when they take on the Swift Current Indians in their home opener at 4:00pm. They鈥檒l also host the Indians at 6:00p.m. Saturday and the Saskatoon Diamondbacks on Sunday for games scheduled for 1:00p.m. and 3:00pm.
