They fought hard and gave it everything they had, but the Westlock Red Lions ultimately ran out of gas during the North Central Alberta Baseball League semifinal Aug. 18-19 at Keller Field.
Their opponents, the first-place Sherwood Park Athletics will host the NCABL championship this weekend.
"It was good game, we battled hard to the finish, they just scored more runs than us," said skipper Chris Brand. "We just ran out of gas there at the end. We were missing a lot of bodies this year and we had a lot of injuries at then, but we fought for whatever we could and just came up a bit short."
After a back-and-forth game one that saw each team hold the lead, which the Lions ultimately lost 10-9 by a single walk, the Lions roared out of the gate in game 2. Kris Johnson took the mound for the entire game, though the Athletics took an early 3-0 lead in the first two innings before Nathan Swap hit a double, followed by a home run by Ryan Teske to put Westlock on the board 3-2. Pat Rains got the team a run batted in (RBI) with a double of his own, tying the game at three apiece.
Westlock had a strong field game that afternoon and was able to shut down the Athletics batting core to return to the plate. In the bottom of the third, the Lions were able to load the bases before Teske started their rally by knocking in a run. Aaron Watamaniuk, Sheldon McConaghy, Rains and Nathan Brown were hot on the bats, scoring RBIs of their own and all of a sudden it was 10-3 for the Red Lions.
It was a pitching duel for the remainder of the game, but a few walks in the bottom of the sixth gave the Lions three more points. The Athletics woke up in the seventh inning, rallying to collect five more runs, but the Lions shut them down to force the third game with a 13-8 final.
Game 3 started out relatively well after Watamaniuk lead off with a double and was brought home by Rains, getting the Lions on the board 1-0 in the second inning. A clever bunt by the Athletics lead to a series of stolen bases and the game was tied. Sherwood Park was able to capitalize on a few errors by Westlock and quickly padded their lead, scoring six runs in the third inning and taking a 7-1 lead.
Westlock was unable to penetrate the Athletics outfield and Sherwood Park whittled them down with run after run. The Red Lions posted a strong rally in the sixth inning, scoring three runs, but the tank was empty. Sherwood Park scored a few more runs in the bottom of the sixth and it was all over at 10-4.
Brand said the Lions played hard and had strong character throughout the season and were able to walk off the field with no regrets.
"There's lots to be proud of this weekend, we tried our best but we just didn't get the results we wanted," he said. "It was a good year. We'll be ready for next year."
Turning their eyes to next season, Brand said the Lions were looking to expand their pitching depth and get a few more bodies on the bench, noting the Lions were short on manpower as the season dragged on.
"I'm proud of the boys and the way we played," said Brand. "I had a lot of fun this year."
The NCABL Championship will be best-of-three series held in Sherwood Park Aug 25-26.
