Massey eliminated at provincials

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This article was published 04/06/2022 (1371 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One Westman team remains in contention for a provincial high school baseball championship today as the 12-team draw has been narrowed to a final four.

The two semifinals, which pit the Portage Trojans against the Stonewall Rams and the Garden City Fighting Gophers versus Boissevain-Wawanesa, are scheduled to start today at Andrews and Sumner fields at 10 a.m., with the first pitch in the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association final set for 1 p.m.

Portage earned its berth with a 19-9 quarterfinal victory over the host Vincent Massey Vikings, which was halted after five innings due to the mercy rule because the Trojans led by 10 runs.

In the other three quarterfinals on Friday, Stonewall blanked Carberry-Cartwright-Baldur-Glenboro 13-0 in four innings, Garden City topped Steinbach 15-6 and Boissevain-Wawanesa defeated Birtle-Shoal Lake-Strathclair 19-1.

In the Vincent Massey game, the two teams combined for 10 runs in a wild first inning that saw Portage build a 6-4 lead. But the tournament hosts were bedevilled by defensive miscues, allowing four unearned runs in the second inning to fall behind 10-4, a gap they never overcame.

While 19 runs is a lot to give up, errors probably played a bigger role than pitching.

“They were battling, and that’s a ball game,” Massey head coach Garrett Popplestone said of his pitchers. “We just needed to have a few more outs and keep it a little bit closer so we could battle back with our sticks, because we were able to hit the ball around.

“We just ran out of time.”

Grade 9 student Tyler Olsen earned the win for Portage, going the distance in just under 100 pitches. The Trojans have eight or nine pitchers, but with potentially five games in three days and pitch count rules, it was an impressive outing.

“It makes a difference,” Portage head coach Cam Asham said. “It saves guys with the pitch count for the next day.”

But it’s Portage’s offence, which has generated 47 runs in three games, that has led the way. On Friday afternoon, Carter Moorhouse homered, doubled and scored four runs.

“I’ve liked our offence,” Asham said. “We’ve done a lot offensively so we’re happy with that definitely.”

Vincent Massey rebounded from a sloppy 17-9 loss to Boissevain-Wawanesa on Thursday with a tidy 12-0 win over McCreary-Ste. Rose on Friday morning, which ended the winless club’s tournament in Pool 2.

“We were happy with our game against Ste. Rose,” Popplestone said. “We were batting the ball and we were making some good plays. It was clean baseball, and that’s what we aspire to have and play.

“That’s just the way baseball goes. Sometimes it’s not as clean as you want it and you have to muster up some things to keep you in the game.”

All four teams that were eliminated in the pool phase went 0-2, with their second loss coming Friday morning.

Helen Betty Osborne fell 26-3 to Stonewall in Pool 1, and Carberry topped Garden Valley 7-3, ending their tournament in Pool 3. In Pool 4, Portage sent William Morton home by beating them 14-13.

Now Portage is one of four clubs still in contention for a provincial crown.

“We have to keep having good at-bats and scoring as much as possible,” Asham said. “We have to clean up our defensive game a little bit and keep getting good pitching performances like we have so far, and just play the best ball we can and see where it takes us.”

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