NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat High Hawks third baseman Trevin Ressler celebrates his fourth inning double in the Hawks 10-0 playoff win Wednesday over the Chinook High School Coyotes at Jeffries field.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Two Medicine Hat high school varsity baseball teams extended their provincial playoff runs Wednesday night.
Medicine Hat High and Monsignor McCoy picked up wins to open their playoffs as the Hawks beat the Chinook High School Coyotes 10-0 and the Colts topped Magrath 13-5.
Hawks head coach Cam Rittinger says he was happy to see his team make adjustments in their win after a slow start offensively.
“The runs came a little bit later in the game, they had a young guy on the mound and he threw a little bit slower, was thumbing us a little bit and it took us a couple innings,” Rittigner said. “I warned the guys beforehand, the guy is going to throw a little bit slower, we have to make the adjustments early and it still took us a couple innings. We saw guys out in front on their front foot, guys leading the ball and rolling over. It took them to second time through the lineup and guys were pulling the ball a little bit harder and that’s where we got the runs.”
Third baseman Trevin Ressler led the first-place Hawks’ offence with four hits and two runs scored. First baseman Koby Eskestrand and second baseman Hayden King each had two RBIs. The Hawks had a complete game on the mound from starter Ryler Straarup, he only allowed one hit and struck out 13 in his six innings of work.
Rittinger tipped his cap to the younger Chinook team who stayed with the Hawks and held them scoreless for three innings.
“They had a Grade 9 pitcher and Grade 9 catcher, so they’re both working pretty good and we have an older lineup,” Rittinger said. “It was just lucky for us that Ryler kept us in it for as long as he did only giving up one hit the whole game. He was locating the fastball and was saving us for a couple of plays to get the ball rolling.”
The Hawks prepare for a quick turnaround as they face the Kate Andrews Pride tonight with the winner earning a spot in next week’s provincial finals. As the Hawks look to repeat as provincial champions, Rittinger says they need to be more aggressive heading into that game and take it one pitch at a time.
“It’s tough when you’re the first-place team coming in, all the pressure is on these guys and if we take a loss, we weren’t expecting to,” Rittinger said. “So I told the guys, we have to punch first and hopefully other teams will fold.
“We’re gonna focus on this game and we can’t get complacent. We have to play our game. As long as we take care of the baseball, the rest will take care of itself.”
The Colts are also preparing for a win-or-die playoff match tonight after their win Tuesday. Their victory over Magrath has them slated to face the Lethbridge Collegiate Rams.
Colts head coach Cole Schreiber says they will have to be at their best against the Rams if they want to play in the finals.
“They’re a good hitting team, earlier in the year they touched us up a little bit and when they played Hat High earlier in the year they had a lot of good swings against them,” Schreiber said. “We know they can hit, our best two arms have to be on their game and we have to take care of the ball defensively, too. We know they’re just a good all around team. They pitch well, they hit well and they have a couple of really good defenders.”
The Colts earned their spot in tonight’s game with the 13-5 win over Magrath, led by a balanced offence. Third baseman JJ Harnett and shortstop Kayne Olinski each knocked in two runs with Harnett collecting two hits as well.
McCoy was able to navigate the win while only utilizing two pitchers, Cole Carlson picked up the win with five strikeouts in four innings pitched before Harnett took over and struck out two in three innings.
“It was exciting for our guys to come out and take a convincing win in a game that we probably should have won, which we did,” Schreiber said. “So happy for our guys, our pitchers took care of the ball, our defense did well defensively and on the bats we scored enough runs to give us a lead early and have a bit of a cushion for the whole game.”
As they prepare to face the Rams and potentially earn a spot in the finals for a second year in a row, Schreiber says the Colts can carry last year’s experience into this must-win game.
“Having a lot of our guys in that spot last year is crucial and helps keep everybody a little bit more even keel,” Schreiber said. “As a coaching staff we have Kyle Woolridge on the bench, who was a big part of our team last year, for him to be here even as a coach now and to have that experience is big. So guys can lean on the vets and hopefully they come ready to play.”
The Eagle Butte Talons also opened their playoffs Wednesday but did not have the same success as their city counterparts.
The Talons were in Lethbridge and lost to the LCI Rams who will face McCoy. Talons right fielders Ward Davies led the offence with two hits, two runs scored and an RBI. First baseman Parker Krauss added two RBI on a hit. Wyatt Watson started on the mound for Eagle Butte and pitched 4.2 innings with five strikeouts before Krauss took over and worked 1.1 innings.
