High expectations

Kentville Wildcats suffer tough loss, look to future

Kentville Wildcats head coach Ian Mosher feels his baseball team is in a bit of an experimental phase this early into the season.

And their game in Dartmouth on June 8 is one experiment Mosher is happy to keep in the past.

“Last night’s experiment was an epic failure,” he said in a phone interview June 9. “So we learn from that.”

The Wildcats started off strong, but their opponents finished stronger.

“We lost … 10-4 despite having a 4-1 lead in the fifth inning,” said Mosher.

“We made 10 errors last night, which is unheard of and unacceptable.”

Frank as he sounds, Mosher is optimistic the senior Wildcats can use what they learned from their “experiment” in Dartmouth to strengthen their infield.

“Most of those errors occurred in the infield, which just put a whole lot of pressure on our pitchers to continually dig out of trouble and we were unsuccessful in doing it,” he said, noting the team is still shuffling players around to try to see what works best.

“We had a retirement of Ian Lockhart, who was the best shortstop in the country and has been the anchor of our team for ten years. We, as a team, are attempting to move on in his absence, and that’s been a very difficult process.”

Mosher sees the tough loss as an opportunity to regroup, and watch how the players bounce back from a disappointing game.

“We’re fives games into a 28-game schedule and there’s playoffs after that. There’s no panic in this… it was probably a good wakeup call,” he said.

“We’re just going to have to do the best we can.”

Fans can catch the Wildcats in action at Memorial Park for two home games next week. They’ll host Truro at 7:30 p.m. June 14 and Halifax at 7 p.m. June 18.