It was not the stellar ending the Westlock Red Lions were hoping for, but the defending North Central Alberta Baseball League champions are in good spirits going into the playoffs after dropping a 5-3 loss to the third place Edmonton Blackhawks Aug. 7 at Keller Field.
The loss means the Red Lions will enter the playoffs as the fourth seed and will face the first place Sherwood Park Athletics in the semifinal during the Westlock Agricultural Fair Aug. 18-19.
"We have this coming week to practice up and we'll be ready to go for the playoffs," said skipper Chris Brand. "We're just going to continue on the same little boat and continue to play some Red Lion baseball, and hopefully that gets us to the promised land."
Throughout the season, Austin Watamaniuk lead the team on bats, finishing with a .443 average and connecting 27 hits, followed closely by Aaron Watamaniuk who had a .400 average with 20 hits. Curtis Burlet was the top Lion on the mound this year, with an earned run average of 3.47 in 44.33 innings pitched — clocking more time in the position than anyone else in the league.
In their final regular season game, the Lions got caught early and the Blackhawks were up 1-0 by the second inning. An ongoing pitcher's dual was broken when Ryan Teske scored a double followed by Aaron Watamiuk drawing a walk to load the bases.
Brand then hit a single to for the RBI and the game was tied 1-1. Nathan Brown hit a short bouncer past the Blackhawks' shortstop to get a second runner home and Brand capitalized on a Blackhawk error to steal the home plate. Westlock was up 3-1 going into the fifth inning.
Edmonton responded quickly, stealing second base twice and snagging an RBI of their own to close the gap. Then in the sixth, with Brown on the mound the Hawks were walked twice and then scored another run. A second Hawk hit a double, bringing home two more runners and retook the lead at 5-3.
The defense locked down at that point and no one was able to get any more runs on the board after that.
"There were a lot of positives to take from the game," said Brand. "We had some benched players, everyone was decent at the bats. Unfortunately, we came out on the loss side of things, but there's definitely some things we can build on from there.
Semi-finals at Ag Fair
With the NCABL season coming to a close the fourth place Red Lions now turn their sights to the playoffs, where they will take to the field against the first place Sherwood Park Athletics during the Westlock and District Agricultural Fair Aug. 18-19.
Westlock has a longstanding tradition of hosting the league semi-finals, for as long as Brand can remember.
"It's one reason why our goal every year is to make the playoffs. To play in front of our home crowd gives us a little bit of an advantage."
In fact, he agreement between the NCABL and the Westlock and District Ag Fair goes back 25 years, said league commissioner Paul Riopel.
Two series will take place over the course of the weekend with the hometown Red Lions squaring off with the Athletics at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday with Game 3, if necessary, taking place at 11 a.m. Sunday.
The other series will feature the second-place Stony Plain Mets taking on the third-place Edmonton Blackhawks at 2 p.m. Saturday. Game 2 will go at 2 p.m. Sunday and then again at 5 p.m., if necessary.
The location and date of the finals will be announced after the semifinals.
This season was very competitive, said Riopel, and he expects the playoffs to be no different.
"Traditionally the postseason semi-final championship series is a very exciting affair with many games going into extra innings and many series going into that final game, so I think fans are going to be in for some very good baseball on that weekend," said Riopel.
