The Yorkton Yankees reached the midway point of their 2015 麻豆传媒AVeast Senior Baseball League (SESBL) campaign Monday night in Yorkton with a 6-1 win over the visiting Canora Supers.
The win comes just days after a heartbreaking 7-6 defeat at the hands of the Swan River Reds, giving the Yankees a 5-3 record through the first eight games, good enough for second place in the now seven team league after the Melville Bison were forced to withdraw from league play.
The Russell Bulls sit atop the standings with a record of 5-2 while Swan River is third at 4-2.
The Langenburg Indians and Willowbrook Royals are tied for fourth with identical 3-2 records while the Canora Supers sit in sixth at 3-3 and the West Parkland Stars seventh with a record of 1-5.
The Parkland Padres and Yorkton Orioles - both part-time SESBL members that play each team in the league once to prepare themselves for their upcoming provincial tournaments 鈥� are 0-3 and 0-2 respectively.
Defeat
Last Wednesday, June 3 the Yorkton Yankees played host to the Swan River Reds, who were in town for the two clubs鈥� second meeting of the season with Swan River taking the first head-to-head contest by a narrow 3-2 margin in a game where Yorkton simply could not get their offence on track.
The two teams opened the game up with a run apiece in the first inning before both defences buckled down in the second inning for a scoreless frame.
Swan River failed to push a run across the plate in the top of the third inning opening the door wide open for the Yorkton offence, which barged through the door with a huge five run outburst that included RBI singles by Dave Morari and Jarett Waldbauer to give the Yankees a 6-1 lead after three innings.
The score remained 6-1 Yorkton after a scoreless fourth inning, however the visiting Reds chipped away at the Yankee lead in the fifth, scoring a pair of runs off of Yankee starter Matt Poier to make it 6-3.
Two more Swan River runs in the sixth inning, this time off of relief pitcher Logan Calanchie, made it a 6-5 ball game before yet another pair of runs in the top of the seventh, once again off of Calanchie, gave the visitors their first lead of the game since the first inning at 7-6.
Things looked promising for the Yankees in the bottom of the seventh as they loaded the bases with just one out, however a base running error combined with a Mark Jacobs fly out to centrefield resulted in a Swan River double play instead of a game-winning hit, giving the visiting Reds a come-from-behind victory while breaking the Yankee hearts.
鈥淭hey seem to have our number this season,鈥� Yankees assistant manager/player-coach Mark Jacobs told the newspaper immediately following the game. 鈥淭his was definitely a total different game than the one we played out there. We jumped out to a lead here, we had a 6-1 lead but they stuck around.
鈥淭hen we gave them a few runs on some walks and some bad fielding and they found away. We couldn鈥檛 push one or two across in the bottom of the seventh to give ourselves a chance.鈥�
Jacobs also mentioned that Calanchie, who shouldered the loss for the club after coming into the game in relief of Poier, was not his usual self but still gave the team a chance to win. 鈥淲e should have been out of those innings but we made some dumb fielding plays and it鈥檚 definitely not his fault (the loss),鈥� offered Jacobs, adding that Calanchie has been the Yankee workhorse on the mound for the last several years and suggesting that fatigue may have been a factor in his less-than-quality, yet still decent, outing. 鈥淗e鈥檚 been our guy for the last five, six, seven years already and he鈥檚 getting worked a lot.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to use it as an excuse but he鈥檚 working a lot for us and I don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 catching up with him but he鈥檚 still putting together good performances that we should be translating to wins.鈥�
Redemption Monday
If last Wednesday鈥檚 loss to the Swan River Reds was one of Logan Calanchie鈥檚 weakest performances in recent memory, then Monday鈥檚 outing against the Canora Supers was one of his best as the Yorkton ace kept the Canora offence off-balance all game long, resulting in a complete game 6-1 victory.
However Calanchie, who has done more than his fair share of pitching over the years, was a game time decision to start on the mound. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 really sure at first if he was going to start and then once he did we weren鈥檛 too sure how far he was going to go but it seemed like he was getting stronger and stronger every inning,鈥� said assistant manager Jacobs on his starting pitcher. 鈥淗e鈥檚 such a competitor out there on the mound and he was definitely upset with how that last game ended (7-6 loss to Swan River), so I think he really just took it upon himself to step up and throw a gem and he did that for us.鈥�
But it wasn鈥檛 just Calanchie that came to play on Monday night. The Yankee defence, which committed five late inning errors in Wednesday鈥檚 loss to Swan River, was perfect through seven innings of baseball despite some very hard hit balls by the Canora offence. 鈥淭hey definitely put some charge into some balls but our guys were there to make the play,鈥� Jacobs said, continuing, 鈥�(Travis) Mentanko and (Kody) Rock聽 hit some balls hard and up and down their order they had some guys hit some hard balls, they just didn鈥檛 fall in for them today like they did for us.鈥�
Next action
The next action for the Yorkton Yankees (5-3) will be Saturday, June 13 when they travel to Roblin to face the West Parkland Stars (1-5) before heading to Willowbrook Tuesday (June 16) for a rematch of last year鈥檚 SESBL Championship final against the Willowbrook Royals (3-2).
