Knights downed at districts

For a coach who’s endured a losing season and saw his team swept out of the playoffs, Lane Aman didn’t sound defeated.

Happy after Friday’s 7-5 loss to Fort Macleod at the Montana-Alberta North District A championships in Conrad, Montana? No. But Aman was realistic in looking back on the season nonetheless.

“I saw tons of improvement throughout the year,” he said from the team bus as it was en route back home to Medicine Hat. “Coming into this year we were very inexperienced, didn’t have a single guy who played in this league beforehand. To see them improve so much defensively and offensively, we could score in a number of different ways at the end of the year compared to the start of the year.”

They never led at the district tournament, obliterated 15-0 by Vauxhall Thursday and trailing Fort Macleod 3-0 before starting to build momentum.

Catcher Reese Whelen — named to the all-district team earlier in the week — singled to get things going in the third inning. Medicine Hat took advantage of a couple walks and a balk to cut the lead the following frame and tied the game when Whelen scored in the sixth. Heyden Harrison got that crucial RBI single but it wasn’t enough. The Royals got a clutch two-out RBI hit from Cole Dixon, who later scored for an insurance run.

“It was exciting for us, we battled back and didn’t give our season away by any means,” said Aman. “We fought until the very end, that was good to see.”

Whelen and Harrison each went 2-for-4, while Ayden Matycio took the loss, striking out four in 5 2/3 innings. Dixon was 3-for-4 for the Royals.

Fort Macleod moves on in the loser’s side of the double knockout event, but the Knights are done.

After a 6-22 regular season, the K of C Knights were the lowest seed at the district finals, unlike last year when they went on a tear late and wound up advancing to the State tournament.

With no returnees from that team on board, it was simply a different plan of attack.

“It’s just how it goes,” said Aman. “We’ve got a really young team, it happens sometimes.

“We’ve had the chance to have an individual meeting with every single (player), they said they had a blast this summer. In the end that’s what really matters the most. They all wish we could’ve won more but the fact they were still able to have fun is what really matters.”