Talons approach playoffs with ‘Last Dance’ mentality

By JAMES TUBB on May 31, 2023.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Eagle Butte Talons senior baseball team is gearing up to give their seniors one last taste of action.

The Talons head into the Alberta Premiere Baseball League playoffs in the sixth seed and are set to face the Lethbridge Collegiate Institute Rams. Talons head coach Austin Bonnet says he’s excited for his seniors.

“Looking forward to them getting their last kick of the can here, and you can tell they’re a little tense coming into it because it could be their last high school baseball game, too,” Bonnet said. “With a team so heavy loaded with Grade 12s, guys we’ve been coaching since Grade 9, some since Grade 8, there’s quite a relationship you develop with those kids. You just hope for them, hope they bear down this last game and get a win and keep playing.”

The Talons faced LCI earlier in the season and lost 11-1. Bonnet says they didn’t have their best stuff in that game and didn’t showcase their usual offensive flair. He’s hoping with their best arm on the mound, that offence will showcase itself early and they can work to contain the Rams.

“That first two innings, you can kind of see the first time through the batting order, you know guys are approaching,” Bonnet said. “That team does have two very good pitchers, so we’ll see one of them for sure. I know we have some kids who can’t catch up to that hard fastball, so it’s just telling them to move back in the box and really get their hands loaded, choke up on the bat and just try and be as quick as they can to the baseball.”

Having known this group for as long as he has Bonnet says they are a fun, loose group that has played a lot of competitive baseball. He says there isn’t much he has to do to get them ready, it’s pointing the ship in the right direction which will be his focus tonight in Lethbridge.

“For these guys, it’s just policing the goofing off, because they’re still young kids,” Bonnet said. “Just making sure they’re focused in and dialled in on the task at hand will be the biggest thing. Because, they like to get to chat and talk about not baseball but we’ll be good.”

9
-8