Winning mentality
Kentville Wildcats take two of three weekend games from top-ranked Sydney
As Kentville Wildcats head coach Ian Mosher put it, it was just like a Meatloaf song: two out of three ain’t bad.
The Wildcats won two of three weekend games against the Number 1 ranked Sydney Sooners at the Susan McEachern Memorial Ball Park. The Wildcats needed a sweep to capture first place in the Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League and Mosher said they played with this mentality.
Mosher said the Wildcats were at a bit of a disadvantage considering the artificial turf installed in the Sydney infield this season.
“We weren’t sure how it was going to play, how it was going to affect us, how it would affect them, we just didn’t know,” Mosher said. “In the end, I think it affected us greatly.”
He said, as it turns out, “everyone is a great fielder on that turf” and Kentville hit ground ball after ground ball, resulting in routine outs. Mosher said this was quite frustrating for Kentville as they were forced to go against their strength and try to hit balls up in the air. Mosher said the Sydney pitchers did a great job holding Kentville down.
Strong Start
They got off to a strong start Friday night, Aug. 19, with a 6-3 win. Mosher said Codey Scrider was “exceptional” as the pitcher and gave up only four singles and struck out 15 Sydney hitters.
Mosher said Scrider is ready to go both mentally and physically as he joins Dartmouth to compete at nationals in Fredericton next weekend.
“It was one of those nights when he had sort of no-hitter stuff, it was that kind of night,” Mosher said.
He said the first game of the double-header Saturday, Aug. 20 featured great pitching performances by Kentville’s Alex Ostrov and Sydney’s Anthony Ianetti. Sydney got an early run but, following three consecutive in-field errors in the fifth, Kentville scored two. This ended up being the final score.
In the third and final game, Sydney again took a one-run lead early on. Following a few mistakes, Sydney ended up “handing” three runs to Kentville in the eighth inning.
“We were really aggressive on the bases, we took some gigantic chances,” Mosher said. “Some of them worked out.”
However, in spite of going into the final inning of the third game with a two-run lead, Kentville ended up losing 4-3 in a dramatic finish.
Disappointing
“That part of it was disappointing to say the least because we were right there. We had it almost in our grasp and it got away from us,” Mosher said.
He was pleased with Dryden Schofield’s pitching in the third game, with the starter making it into the eighth inning.
“We have three pitchers that were absolutely fantastic,” Mosher said. “Full marks to Codey Scrider, Alex Ostrov, and Dryden Schofield because the three of them were just bulldogs out there.”
All things considered, Mosher is impressed with his team’s performance. Mosher said they had one more regular season game against Halifax Tuesday night, Aug. 23 (did not happen by press time). They’re hoping to end the regular season in second place behind Sydney but they could end up in third. Regardless, their sites are now set on the playoffs.