Despite Tough Losses - U18 AA Canucks Far From Giving Up
“I’m proud of the way they were resilient. They came back…,” Zach Klyne head coach of the U18 AA Canucks talking about team bouncing back and improving after being mauled in game one of a double header.
Double Header
Canucks 0 - Brewers 19 (Game One)
Canucks 4 - Brewers 10 (Game Two)
By Robert Thomas
There may be more than a few flaws with the U18 AA Canucks but tenacity and hanging in there are not two of them.
It’s something the Canucks proved on Sunday afternoon as they took on the powerhouse Estevan Brewers in a double header.
The Brewers, last season’s provincial champion, and western Canadian championship winner, was a tough nut for the Canucks to crack but nevertheless the team attempted it.
“They’re a good team I think I counted one error in two games,” Canucks U18 AA head coach Zach Klyne said. “They lost some guys but apparently the guys that came back are still pretty good.”
In the meantime the Canucks would wrack up five errors in the first inning of game two.
“The score (in the second game) was 10 - 4 we found our cats a little bit. Our pitchers did a good job. Mason had a good start but kind of got killed by errors in the first inning and then Turner came in and pitched three good innings. He kept us in the game for the most part,” he said about game two in the double header.
“We just couldn’t find our bats well enough to get all of the way back.”
He praised the team for hanging in there and not giving up in Game Two.
Canucks reliever Luke Turner is about to release some heat from the mound - MJ Independent photo
“It could have unraveled quickly with a 19 - 0 final (in game one). You don’t know how the boys (will react). We’re still teenagers over here so we don’t know how they’re going to bounce back after losing 19 - 0 but they did a really good job,” Klyne said.
“I’m proud of the way they were resilient. They came back I think we just need a lot of batting practice so we can figure it out,” he said.
“We can take away a little bit of good from today. The first game 19 - 0 there’s not much good you can take from that. The boys bounced pretty good after that with a 10 - 4 final,” Klyne said.
Game Two of the doubleheader saw the Canucks fall into a deep hole at the top of the first inning when they recorded five errors to start out the game.
The five errors allowed the Brewers to score an insurmountable six runs in the top half of the first inning.
Practice over the next little while is going to consist of “a lot of batting” as the team has had problems in that area over the past few games.
Making the pop up play at second base - MJ Independent photo
Canucks bat catcher Van Sinclair said despite the tough losses the team still has a lot of potential and room for growth and improvement.
Sinclair said despite the 19 - 0 drubbing in game one that the second game of the double header saw large improvements.
“We started to get the bat off of our shoulder and hitting the ball hard and started making plays,” he said.
Sinclair is optimistic about the Canucks.
“I think in a few weeks we are going to be a real good ball team, a contending ball team for sure.”
Asked if the Canucks lost to a ball or they lost the game to themselves Sinclair said he thought it was a little bit of both.
“They had one error and we had five. So I think we just need to clean up our defence and if we do there isn’t a team that can beat us.”
He said baseball was peaks and valleys and right now the team was in a valley.
“We’ll get out of it…I think if we just keep our heads down and play smartly good things will happen.”
Swinging on a pitch lower down in the strike zone - MJ Independent photo
He pointed to the Canucks that were having an off year in 2024 but they went to Saskatoon and captured a major tournament.
“It kind of goes to show what kind of a game baseball is. You can have just the worst teams killing the best teams sometimes. It’s just the beauty of baseball. “
Sinclair said the major things he sees the Canucks needing is maintaining a strong attitude and keeping their heads up.
“Just keep working at putting bat on ball…making the simple plays when we need them.”
“I think we’re a good ball club and we need to acknowledge it in front of everyone else,” he said.
Moose Jaw U18 AAA Canucks team meeting following the double header - MJ Independent photo
The Canucks made a decision in their schedule to move two regular season games to Assiniboia to face the Weyburn Beavers on Canada Day.
“We have two grade 12s from Assiniboia so we wanted to give them some home games,” Klyne said about the reasoning for moving the games as a Canada Day double header to Assiniboia.
It also should be noted that in the past and still in some locations, many smaller communities have ball tournaments on Canada Day.
“It’ll be good. A change of scenery might help the boys. They might learn something new…I think it will be a very exciting game…I think it will be fun,” Klyne said.