NEWS FILE PHOTO
Ethan Grad of the Medicine Hat Knights of Columbus squares up a pitch in an at bat during the Knights 18-2 win in an exhibition game against the U18 Outlaws on May 18 at Jeffries Field.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The K of C Knights are getting set for the biggest weekend of the summer American Legion season.
The Knights head to Lethbridge today ahead of the first game of the districts tournament on Thursday, 9 a.m. against the No. 4 seed Lewistown Redbirds.
The Knights enter the double-knockout tournament as the No. 5 seed, coming off a 26-26 summer that saw them also go .500 in conference play at 14-14. It’s a record that head coach Cole Schreiber is proud of with how young and how injured a team they’ve had over the summer.
“We exceeded expectations with how young of a group we had,” Schreiber said. “When I look at the top teams of the league and even some at the bottom, they had a lot of guys who are a lot older than we are. Most teams has first-year college kids, Grade 12s and Grade 11s. We played half the year with one Grade 11 who unfortunately got hurt.
“After that, we’re all Grade 9 and Grade 10’s, so we’re extremely young compared to everyone else. It looks promising for our future, and finishing .500 is a big accomplishment for us with how young the team is.”
Schreiber says Lewiston is well coached, and his group will have to be detailed.
“They have a really good arm that we’re going to get day one and they play the game hard,” Schreiber said. “They play the game the right way and it’s not an easy matchup for us by any means. We split with them this year, two wins and two losses, hopefully we learned from those two losses and I think we’ll have a chance in that one.”
First-year Knight Ty Meyer says the ups and downs they’ve gone through this season adds more motivation for the weekend to end the summer on a high note.
“We’re a pretty good team, we’ve all bonded together so our energy should be high,” Meyer said. “We’ve waited for this weekend the whole season.”
Schreiber says if they’re going to have success, it will start on the defensive side of the ball with pitching and defence having led the way all summer. He says they’re going to have to push for offence and play some small ball to get runs across, with their youth limiting the club in the big fly category.
Ethan Grad, who has the Knights’ lone home run of the season, says they’re all excited for the important weekend and he is looking forward to the matchup with Lewistown.
“We just have to play like we can,” Grad said. “Keep fielding balls well, keep hitting the ball good and do our best.”
Schreiber remembers playing in the tournament when he was in Knights and says they’re still some of his fondest memories in baseball.
“It’s a different animal, the competitiveness gets ramped up a little bit and everything is just pulling for the team at that point,” Schreiber said. “Whether you ground out, if you score a run that’s a productive at bat. It’s going to have to be everyone pulling in one direction to try and win, it’s a lot of fun.
“I’m excited for these guys to get to experience it because besides one guy (Ward Davies), it’ll be new to them.”
A win on Thursday would have the Knights face the winner of the No. 1 seed Vauxhall Spurs and No. 8 seed Great Falls Chargers on Friday at 2:30 p.m. A loss to Lewistown, and they’ll be back in action Friday at 9 a.m. with the loser of the Spurs and Chargers action.
