57’s conclude the regular season
The Swift Current 57’s wrapped up the regular season on a strong note as they placed second in the Western Major Baseball League’s Eastern Division to clinch homefield advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.
Wednesday, the 57’s got big nights from Ethan Hunter and Myles Miller and took advantage of five errors in an 8-7 win over the Melville Millionaires. The 57’s scored the opening six runs as Hunter finished with three hits and three runs scored and Miller contributed three hits and two runs batted in.
The 57’s got out to a quick start when Hunter doubled home Blake Adams on the third pitch of the game and then Keil Krumwiede singled home Hunter for a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
Evan Pontley got the win after allowing seven hits, two walks, and five runs, three that were earned, while striking out six over six innings.
Thursday, three pitchers combined to shutout the Millionaires as the 57’s won 8-0 in their final road game of the regular season.
Joey Machado struck out the side in the first inning and never looked back to get the win. He finished with 10 strikeouts over seven scoreless innings.
Jack Ferguson and Aaron Pugh each added scoreless innings to close out the shutout.
The 57’s opened the scoring for a second straight night when Adams was hit by a pitch and eventually scored on a wild pitch. Nick Canas singled and scored on an error in the third inning to double the lead.
The 57’s added to their lead with four runs in the sixth inning. Canas walked and scored on an error, Miller doubled home Ruben Rodriquez, and Mitch Dean doubled home Miller and Ben Komonosky.
They added another two runs in the following inning when Rodriquez hit a sacrifice fly to plate Adams and Komonosky singled home Canas.
Friday, the 57’s held the visiting Yorkton Cardinals to four hits in an 11-5 win.
Yorkton took a commanding lead in the second inning when they took advantage of an error to score four unearned runs during a five-run inning.
The 57’s replied in the third inning when they also took advantage of some sloppy play to post four runs with only a single hit to make it a one-run game. They added five runs in the fourth inning to take a 9-5 lead. The 57’s added two runs in the eighth inning to close the scoring.
Brock Gilliam got the win after allowing four hits, three walks, and five runs, only one that was earned, while striking out six over six innings.
Saturday, the 57’s fell 10-6 in extra innings to the Yorkton Cardinals at Mitchell Field to end their three-game winning streak. Ryne Niemi hit a grand slam for the Cardinals in the top of the 11th inning.
It was a game of missed opportunities for the 57’s as they knocked out 18 hits but left 15 runners on base. The first eight hitters in the batting order finished with at least two hits, including three-hit outings from Adams and Miller.
Sunday, the 57’s wrapped up the regular season with a 22-9 win over the Cardinals.
The meaningless contest featured 32 hits, 18 walks, and 12 different pitchers as both teams had a little fun in the final game of the regular season.
Yorkton used a total of seven pitchers, including Niemi, who got the final two outs during a game that he played seven different positions.
Garrett Hawkins got the win for the 57’s as he allowed seven hits, three walks, and three runs, only two that were earned. The Biggar product finished the season 4-0 with an impressive 3.13 earned run average.
Miller finished the day with three hits, two runs scored, and three runs batted in to win the WMBL batting title with a .408 average.
“It was really cool,” said Miller after finishing with 49 hits in only 28 games. “I’ve actually never led a league in anything in my life. I just saw an opportunity and I took it. I just tried to stick within myself and not do too much at the plate. I can credit Joe [Carnahan] for a lot. He has helped me a lot hittingwise also.”
Adams walked three times, scored twice, had three RBI, and was hit by a pitch. He led the league with 16 hit by pitches to finish second in franchise history behind Derek Mckeil, who was hit 20 times in 2006.
The 57’s finished the season with a 28-20 record, while Yorkton fell to 14-33.
The 57’s will now meet the Regina Red Sox (26-21) in the WMBL Eastern Division bestof-five semi-final series, which began on Tuesday at Mitchell Field.
The 57’s lost five of six games to the Red Sox during the regular season, but they have been the better team down the stretch of the 48-game regular season.
“Yeah we are feeling really good,” said Miller. “We are just going to try and stick to our game and try and play ourselves every time, rather than worrying about all the other stuff going on that we can’t control.”
The 57’s won 14 of their final 17 games of the regular season.
“I thought we played really well,” said Miller. “We just kind of stuck together as a team, didn’t really let who we were playing affect how we needed to go into the games. We are just going to be ready for Regina. We have been trying to play hard and visualize ahead about what we need to accomplish to get to the next round and to the championship.”
The 57’s got out to a slow start to the season with only three wins in their first 11 games. Their roster was in a constant state of change but the team managed to put together a pretty impressive campaign.
“Honestly it has just been trying to do our everyday jobs and each do the things that we’re supposed to do, play good D, hit, and in key situations come up big with bases loaded. I thought we got a lot better with that as the year went on. It is just doing your job and make sure you are doing your things,” said Miller.
Miller, a native of Windsor, ON, who played last season at the University of Northern Ohio, provided a steady source of production after his arrival on June 16. He finished with 27 RBI and 29 runs scored in 28 games.
“I find a lot of it is my twostrike approach because most of my hits are with two strikes. Honestly it is just trying to put it in play. I try and keep my walks higher than my strikeouts, that’s my main thing. As a three-four hole hitter, where I usually am, it’s just trying to be picky when I got guys on. I want to try and drive the ball to get them in. Even with two strikes just put it in play because it is better than striking out and will help getting guys in.”
Games one and two of the best-of-five series were to be played Tuesday and Wednesday in Swift Current. Games three and four will be Thursday and Friday in Regina. Game five, if necessary, would be Saturday in Swift Current.
Visit swbooster.com for complete 57’s playoff coverage.