NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
McCoy Colts pitcher Caleb Garrecht strides towards home plate with a pitch during the 11-0 win Wednesday against the Eagle Butte Talons at McCoy field.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The McCoy Colts senior baseball team opened their season on a high note Wednesday.
The Colts beat the Eagle Butte Talons Sr. team 11-0, for an early 1-0 record on the year.
Head coach Cole Schreiber was happy they could start the year on a good note.
“It’s obviously a convincing win but that’s a good team over there who is going to keep getting better throughout the year,” Schreiber said. “They’re well coached, so we have to enjoy this one tonight. But if we see them again we’re probably going to get a different team in a couple of weeks.”
Caleb Garrecht led the way for the Colts offensively and on the mound. He had three hits, three runs scored and an RBI while pitching a complete five-inning game with five strikeouts.
The Colts come into the Alberta Premier league season off a provincial final loss against the Hat High Hawks and have lost some of their top pieces from that team due to graduations. Schreiber was impressed with his younger players in Wednesday’s win.
“We just had so much leadership with our Grade 12s, it’s going to be tough to combat that, we lost six Grade 12s last year and all six of those guys played an important role,” Schreiber said. “But our Grade 10s played fantastic tonight, we had Kolter (Gans) come up with a couple big hits and some nice plays, (Matt) Fritzler with a big hit and Tate Bowal made a couple of good plays at second base. So we lost some Grade 12s, we lost some leadership but the future looks great for us.”
He tabs players like Garrecht and others to help lead the way this year and step up into bigger roles.
“We have probably a top five arm in the league in Caleb Garrett and he showed that, we know what we’re getting from him every time he takes the mound and it’s not just him,” Schreiber said. “I like Kayne Olinsky and what he’s going to bring, he’s going to have a good year for us and just good leadership all around. Guys like Jackson Bowal is a Grade 12, a great leader on our team, Fischer (Haysom) a great leader, Beck (Boiteau) a great leader. So even you say you lose stuff, the things we are bringing back especially with leadership is going to be very crucial for us.”
Olinski had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI, and Fritzler had three RBIs.
The Colts’ next action is Thursday when they face the Hawks in a rematch of the provincial finals last season. Schreiber says anytime they can face a local team it’s circled on the calendar weeks in advance by both teams.
“It’s fantastic to be out here again and these guys love playing against their buddies,” Schreiber said. “That’s the other great thing about having Eagle Butte now, we have a lot of guys on all three teams who have played together growing up a little bit and now to play against each other everybody’s super pumped.”
