Marlins gear up for 13U westerns

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This article was published 17/08/2023 (1027 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon Marlins have one last bit of unfinished business this summer as they start play at the 13-and-under Western Canadian Baseball Championship in Kelowna on Friday.

But head coach Ryan Reid said he hopes his team is able to mix in a little pleasure as his players attend their first AA westerns after winning the Tier 2 provincials on Aug. 4-6 at Winnipeg’s Optimist Park.

“It’s fun to watch them and experience that,” Reid said. “It doesn’t happen very often. You have to try to soak it in at the same time you go and compete. There is some balance there to try to keep them settled and go have fun and play hard.”

Most of the team is flying out today, although a few families incorporated it into a family vacation and drove out.

Brandon meets the host Kelowna Sun Devils on Friday at 2:15 p.m. (local time), at Edith Gay Park in Kelowna. On Saturday they play British Columbia’s North Delta Rays at 9 a.m. and Alberta’s Consort Cubs at 2:30 p.m., and finish the round-robin on Sunday morning at 9 o’clock when they play Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert Royals.

The top two clubs advance to the gold medal game later in the day, with the first pitch at 5:15 p.m.

Reid, who played in a national event and three westerns, said his group is setting their sights high as they enter the unknown in Kelowna.

“That’s the nature of me to start with, I’m a competitor through and through,” Reid said. “I don’t know what it’s going to be like but we’re definitely going to try to win the whole thing for sure.”

The main roster consists of Josh Sveistrup, Cash Leslie, Carson Reid, Beckett Boguski, Reid Nicol, Madden Cheung, Nash Lenton, Eli Cummings-Ursel, Emmitt Bell, Grayson Rome and Carter McCannel. They’re also taking affiliate player Sebastien Shakotko, plus a pair of pickups, Oildome pitcher Tyler Drummond and St. James hitter Donovan Bullard.

The main roster has five minors and six majors, with all the majors either returning veterans or at least affiliate players with last year’s club. The young team certainly showed some poise at provincials.

“We were 5-1 with the most brutal schedule I’ve ever seen,” Reid said. “We played every morning at 8:15, all three days which I’ve never seen, and then Saturday we played the first game and then at 5:30 at night.

“It was pretty ugly so we had to persevere with some tired boys to try to grind our way through.”

The Marlins went 3-1 in the round-robin, beating Midwest 20-3, Oildome 10-4 and North Winnipeg 11-1, with a 14-6 loss to St. James.

“It caught us Saturday morning,” Reid said. “We played the hosts, St. James, and we weren’t ready. We were tired and they whooped us pretty good but we got them back in the final so that was kind of satisfying.”

In the playoffs, they topped Interlake 14-9 in the semifinals and earned their revenge over St. James with an 18-11 victory in the Tier 2 final.

With pitch counts an important factor in the age group, the coaching staff — including assistant coaches Chris McCannel, Ryan Boguski and Rodi Sveistrup — played its cards correctly and had its two aces, Rome and Cummings-Ursel, left for the final, but had to also dip into its storehouse of eight pitchers to earn the win.

Reid said his young team has done well in big-game situations before, channelling the nerves they have productively.

“They used it more for energy than tightening up,” Reid said. “The (provincial) final was tough for both sides, we made a lot of errors, but we hit the tar off the ball. Our boys haven’t hit like that this year once. That was nice to finally see, what you think they have in them came out at the right time, which is kind of cool.”

While every coach would like an error-free game, that’s roughly akin to winning the lottery twice at the U13 level. Reid said the more important factor was how they responded to the miscues.

“For me, it’s a concern but it’s inevitable at this age,” Reid said. “To have a clean game in peewee is borderline impossible. There were more than I would have liked, but they were followed up by really good plays. A lot of times before that spiralled on us and turned into really big innings and eventually losses, but they grew through that a bit, which was really nice to see.

“They kept their energy levels up, which is really hard to do.”

Nicol hit four homers during the tournament with a huge three-run shot in the final, and Sveistrup and Lenton also led the way offensively.

On the mound, minors Bell and Boguski threw a lot of big innings for the club, which had a bit of a muted celebration after they earned the Tier 2 title.

“They probably didn’t even really get it,” Reid said. “They were excited for the win and drop home and woke up the next morning and went ‘Holy crap, we’re not done ball yet.’

“They were all exhausted too. All the kids were sleeping on the way home and when they got up we told them ‘Hey, we’re going’ and they were pretty excited.”

The next big challenge awaits starting Friday. While Reid doesn’t know what to expect, he’s making one pretty safe guess.

“I just assume everyone is really good so you have to be on your game.”

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