The Westlock Grey Lions are taking advantage of their lucky bounces early in the season and remain undefeated in the Alberta West Central Baseball Association after four games.
It seemed the Sherwood Park Pirates pitchers couldn’t miss a bat as the Grey Lions defeated the visitors in a 15-9 slugfest May 31 on their home turf at Keller Field.
Player/manager Sheldon McConaghy couldn’t say whether the breaks the team is getting are a result of luck or skill, but the hits seem to come when they’re needed and balls are falling into the outfield, out of the reach of opposing players’ gloves.
“It might be a little bit of both,” he said. “Both teams got a few breaks on defense and the runs started to add up a little bit.”
The Grey Lions came out of the cage hungry after their May 24 tilt against the Sherwood Park Ducks was postponed due to rain. They scored seven runs in the first and just added to and maintained their lead over the course of the game.
“We scored early, which gave us some confidence and helped us keep adding on throughout the game and we were able to hold those guys off. They’re a good team and they were hitting balls that we were throwing in there,” said McConaghy, who was also the starting pitcher for the Grey Lions and went four innings in the win.
“I felt good. The result wasn’t what I wanted, but it was alright.”
The Grey Lions took their 3-0 record into road action against the St. Albert Cardinals June 2 and came away with a 12-2 win to officially put them into a first place tie with the Spruce Grove Eagles with a perfect 4-0 record.
Sean Beaudoin started the game and threw four innings before handing it over to Nathan Brown for the fifth inning. The game was called after five innings.
“We hit the ball well and scored in all five innings,” said McConaghy.
The Edmonton Heat will make the trip to Keller Field June 4 and the Grey Lions will hit the road to face the Edmonton Blues June 7.
