NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Ward Davies of the Eagle Butte Talons squares up a hit in Eagle Butte's 11-0 loss against the McCoy Colts on Wednesday at McCoy field.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Eagle Butte Talons senior boys baseball team is in a new league with some familiar foes this season.
The Talons are one of nine teams in the Alberta Premier Baseball League, joining the Medicine Hat High Hawks and McCoy Colts as local teams competing against schools from Lethbridge and surrounding.
Head coach Austin Bonnet says the Talons are a senior heavy group with seven Grade 12 athletes and has enjoyed seeing his team start their season.
“We’re three games in, so we’re still working out as a unit and just stringing things together,” Bonnet said. “Getting the timely hits and just figuring out where guys need to be in the lineup.”
Eagle Butte beat the Raymond Comets 17-12 on April 18 before dropping both games of a double header Wednesday. They lost 11-0 against the Colts before dropping a close 14-13 contest with the Chinook Coyotes.
Ryan Miller, Dylan Amundson and Ward Davies each had a hit against McCoy, no pitching stats were available. Parker Kraus led the way against the Coyotes, with three hits and two runs scored. Waylan Watson and Zach Herman each had two hits. Amundson started the game for the Talons and registered three strikeouts in three innings. Watson took over for relief and notched six strikeouts in four innings.
Bonnet says both the players and coaches enjoy the inner-city matchups.
“I like those the most and I think our players do, too,” Bonnet said. “They have a lot of buddies on those other teams and have fun competing against their friends. You see the coaches and know the coaches, I played ball growing up with them, so it’s a nice little community.”
With the season lasting until the end of May, Bonnet says every team has to nip mistakes in the bud as quickly as possible with the sprint of the calendar.
“You have to mitigate them quick because there’s only a handful of regular season games and that determines your playoff seed,” Bonnet said. “The games you can win you have to win. You have to get those errors out of there early and just get running smoothly.”
The Talons have two games next week, hosting the Kate Andrews Pride on Tuesday before hitting the road Thursday to face the Magrath Zeniths. Tuesday’s game is at McCoy field, first pitch at 5:30 p.m.
