Bantam Indians make final at home tournament

The Swift Current Bantam Indians battled their way to a secondplace finish at their sixteam home tournament over the weekend.

The Tribe lost their opening game 9-3 to Regina but bounced back with a 6-3 win over Macklin to finish second in their pool.

They upended Lethbridge 7-5 in the semifinal before losing 8-5 to Weyburn in the championship game Sunday afternoon.

“I thought we played really well,” said coach Mike Kozyn.

“Our loss Friday night was against an all-star Little League team, so they were very, very deep. We competed with them and we didn’t get mercy’d so that is a good thing.

“We had two good games Saturday and then lost the final against Weyburn, whose top-five batters are amazing and they have really good pitching. Overall I am really happy with the boys.”

Kozyn thought the team rebounded well from a tough loss to open the tournament against Regina.

“We just talked to the boys and said keep your heads up, that’s obviously a very, very good team. We just kept building on all the good things. We talked about the good things that we do every game and not focus on the bad things and just keep rolling like that.”

He said it was great to play at home among four divisions of baseball that saw all four Swift Current teams play in their respective championship games.

“Yeah it is, even though half of our games were on the visitors side. It is nice to be at home. Mother Nature kind of scared us a couple of times but we survived that and carried on.”

The Bantam Indians are currently fourth in the Baseball Regina Bantam AAA League with an 8-10 record.

“Our league play has been good. Probably out of those 10 games that we lost we probably could have won five. But I am doing different things in some of those games just to put players in different situations so I know when we get to Provincials and Westerns who can do what.

“When I look at league play everybody makes the playoffs so it doesn’t matter how many you win or lose as long as you do it at the right time.”

The Bantam Indians are idle this weekend, then off to the Melville for an AAA tournament the following weekend. Bantam Indians’ catcher Dallan Kozyn awaits a throw at home during a tough loss to Regina on Friday evening.