It took four games, but the Red Lions posted their first win of the North Central Alberta Baseball League season, defeating the Edmonton Primeaus 6-1 May 24 before sweeping the Sturgeon Paladins in a May 27 doubleheader at Keller Field.
The three wins follow a narrow 6-5 loss in their home opener against the Edmonton Athletics May 22 and two losses on the road to open up the season. After the weekend the club’s record is now even at 3-3.
“The spring training rust is finally starting to go,” said skipper Chris Brand. “We just have to keep the same positive attitude we had in these last few games and stay on our game.”
In their first game of the week, the Lions got on the board first against the Athletics, but fell short as the game dragged on. They were hopeful after a decent first inning, but things started unravelling for the Lions soon after that.
The Athletics got on a roll at the top of the second and by the time the Lions managed to turn the field over the score was 6-2 for the team from Edmonton.
The final score was 6-4.
“We came back, we were looking to get some runs but we just came up a little bit short,” said Brand. “So far this year, we just seem to have one bad inning. So we have to figure a way to eliminate that bad inning and hopefully put some wins together.”
When the Primeaus came to town two days later, the Lions were hungry for a win.
They held the Primeaus to one run while scoring four of their own early on before both teams hunkered down on defense. The scoreboard didn’t move again until the bottom of the fifth.
Westlock wasn’t done there, scoring another run in the bottom of the sixth.
The last inning went scoreless and the Lions celebrated their first win of the season.
“We were able to score some runs early and that helped with our momentum,” said Brand. “We scored two in the first and two in the second and took it from there.”
The Lions busy week continued May 27 as they swept the Sturgeon Paladins in a doubleheader at Keller Field — 21-1 in Game 1 and 6-4 in Game 2.
Up next, the Red Lions host the St. Albert Cardinals May 31 before heading to Edmonton for a double header June 3 against the Athletics.
