It’s a lock Kentville Wildcats secure spot in playoffs

Kentville fans can count on seeing a little more of the boys of summer.

A loss by Halifax locked in a spot for the Kentville Wildcats in the playoffs, said an ecstatic head coach Ian Mosher. And he was excited for good reason – after years of struggling to field a team and missing out on the playoffs last year, the Wildcats could conceivably finish up in first.

“It really shows how far we’ve come,” said Mosher. “We’ve had young players, lots of turnover, and we know how far behind the rest of the league we were. Now I think we’re where we should be.”

Where the Wildcats will stack up is not yet known. On Aug. 19 and 20, the team was in Sydney to play their rivals the Sooners, who held first going into the weekend. A win or two in the three- game series could give the Wildcats the bump they need to finish in first, but they still have a couple games left to play in the season.

But, said Mosher, the teams are all so close together that the Wildcats could finish anywhere from first place to fourth.

And, really, he has no preference for which team they’ll face in the first round.

“From here on in, every game is going to seem monumental, but in two weeks, we’ll be 0- 0 and so will every- one else,” he says.

It won’t be easy, he admits. The Wildcats, Mosher said, have been going through “a rough patch” with several key players injured. That’s meant playing a bit of Russian roulette with the positions and hoping that the players put in each spot can achieve what they need to do to get a win.

“I’ve done crazy things as a coach out of necessity, due to injuries, lack of pitchers, players who were unable to attend. I’ve shuffled the deck, and guys have played out of position. I have to own it when they make errors in that case,” he said.

It hasn’t always been successful, he says, pointing to the Aug. 15 game against Truro as a prime example. The team had a disappointing, errorfilled loss to Truro, and despite an early lead, the Wildcats couldn’t hold on as the Bear- cats overtook them 5-3.

“We can’t make the kind of mistakes we’ve been making lately in the playoffs,” he said. “Now that we’re at the end of the year and the wins mean something, we hope we’ll have the guys playing the position they’re best able to play. We’re going to give it our best effort and let the chips fall where they may.”

But, says Mosher, the team has the talent it needs to do the job.

“We’ve had a depth we were lacking the last few years that we’ve had this year,” he said. “The new players brought us that.”

Don’t discount the veteran presence on the bench, though. The Wildcats have a roster of dedicated players who brought experience to help guide the newcomers, he said.

“We’ll see if all the hard work we’ve put in, all the strives we’ve made, all the sacrifices our players make to go out there every night, if all of that will work for us in the playoffs,” he said.