TWO DOWN, TWO TO GO
Sydney Sooners return home leading best-of-seven NSSBL championship series 2-0
Sydney Sooners return home in NSSBL championship series.
The Sydney Sooners may be coming home with a 2-0 lead, but the team knows the Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League championship series is far from over.
The Sooners surprised many fans across the league by opening the league finals with a pair of wins last weekend, on the road, over the Dartmouth Moosehead Dry, a ballclub that had only lost once during the regular season, finishing 31-1.
Although the team is pleased with its start, the players aren’t taking the series for granted.
“There’s lots of work left to be done,” said right-handed pitcher Justin Brewer. “Dartmouth is a strong team and it’s not over until it’s over.”
Sydney and Dartmouth will continue the best-of-seven series on Friday with the Sooners hosting the Moosehead Dry at 7:15 p.m. at Susan McEachern Memorial Ball Park in Sydney.
Despite the Sooners’ success this year on home field, head coach Jim (Rico) McEachern has already told his squad to be prepared for tough games this weekend.
“We know what we have to do, and we have to work hard to get whatever we’re going to get and
we’re just looking for our next win,” said McEachern.
“There’s nobody on my team that is going into this weekend’s games overconfident.”
The Sooners finished the regular season second overall in the five-team league standings with a 15-17 record, 16 games back of
first place Dartmouth.
“We put the regular season behind us,” said Brewer, who’s expected to pitch sometime this weekend. “We identified that they were a good team and that they’ve had success this year, but you still have to play the game of baseball and we have to put it all on the
line.”
Last season, Sydney claimed the league championship, their first since winning back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014, after besting the Moosehead Dry in six games in October.
McEachern wouldn’t confirm his starting pitcher for Friday’s
game, however he noted that Sheldon MacDonald and Brewer are his aces.
“I’ll use whatever I have to in order to get that win (Friday) and then we will go from there.” said McEachern.
Game 4 of the series is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. at Susan McEachern Memorial Ball Park. Game 5, if necessary, will be played later that day at 5 p.m.
Game 6 and 7, if necessary, will be played in Dartmouth on Oct. 6 and Oct. 7.
With the potential of rain in the forecast for Friday, McEachern said the third game of the series could be moved from Friday to Saturday. A decision is expected to be made today.