NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Medicine Hat K of C Knights starting pitcher Jack Didack throws to Easton Fitzpatrick, of the Fort Macleod Royals, during an American Legion Baseball A doubleheader on Sunday, May 26, 2019 at Athletic Park.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The Medicine Hat K of C Knights are ready to seize the moment.
The Knights open the American Legion North District A Tournament tonight against the Lewistown Redbirds in their first time hosting the post-season event since 2012 – when current coaches Lane Aman and Intek Hong were out on the field for themselves. Looking back on his experience playing at the tournament, Aman says he didn’t realize how rare the opportunity when he was in the thick of it – which is why he’ll be urging his players to savour every moment on the diamond this weekend.
“I think that’s all it’s about,” said Aman, whose Knights will the diamond at Jeffries Field for a 5:45 p.m. first pitch. “We kind of try to keep them to play loose and not put any extra pressure on them so they don’t put any extra pressure on themselves. Being that it’s at home, they’ve just got to come out and have lots of fun because this is a cool experience that not everyone gets to have, hosting a major tournament.
“For lots of these guys it’ll probably be their first time playing in a big tournament at home as well. That’s something that you remember, so I think it’ll be lots of fun.”
While the Redbirds enter as the higher seed in the 3-versus-6 matchup, the Knights managed to split the season series 2-2 – leaving Jordan Hieb highly confident in his team’s chance to advance.
“I’m definitely expecting to pull out this game,” said Hieb, whose Knights won their first two games against Lewistown, 5-2 and 6-4, before falling 13-8 and 11-9 to close out the season series in late June. “We definitely let them have those last two, I don’t think we tried our hardest. Since we’re at home I think we have a better chance of just taking it.”
The Knights will send Payton Eddy to the bump in what Aman expects will be another hard-fought battle between two teams leaving everything on the diamond.
“It’s going to be a battle, for sure,” said Aman. “We’re expecting a close game, we’re expecting to see some of their best arms and we’re going to come out all guns firing at them.”
The Knights and Redbirds seem annually destined to cross paths in the playoffs, and after coming a few swings shy of stealing this year’s season series Aman says they’ve had a history of success against the Montana-based squad.
“We seem to always meet with them in the District Tournament one way or another – or the state tournament a couple of years ago – so it’s turned into a bit of a rivalry playing them at the end of the season and we usually fare pretty well,” he said. “I think that we should come in with confidence knowing that we beat them twice this year and that we can do it again.”
The winner will advance into Friday’s quarter-final. The loser will fight to stay alive in the loser’s bracket. The winner of the loser’s bracket will earn a place in Sunday’s 2 p.m. final against the last squad standing in the winner’s bracket.
The tournament officially kicks off at 11 a.m. with a matchup between Havre and Tri-County, followed by Lethbridge against Fort Macleod at 2 p.m. All games will be held at Jeffries Field.
