Leduc nips Armena at home
Posted June 3, 2010
The Leduc Milleteers have flirted with disaster in a couple recent games and they got away with another one on Wednesday night at home as the Armena Royals couldn’t find a way to cash in the extra offense needed to defeat the defending champions.
“A big problem we’re having right now is execution on the offensive side of the ball,” said Armena player-coach Jason Buzzell. “We’ve run ourselves into some outs, we haven’t been able to get a bunt down, and or to cash in a run or two in scoring position that leads to a game-changing inning.”
On a night when junk-baller Cody Sroka showed his best stuff and kept Leduc in check all night, similar to Tuesday when Lee Palmer pitched an admirable game in Ryley, it was Armena’s offense that couldn’t get the job done in a 3-2 loss.
Twice the Royals had the bases loaded in the game, but they only mustered the two runs. They scored one in the first on a sac fly by Brian Rademacher – his first RBI of the season. Then part-timer Kris Johnson scored in the third on a passed ball to give the Royals a 2-1 lead.
“We had baserunners. They made mistakes early and we notched enough hits to win a ball game – just not in the key spots to break it open,” Buzzell said.
Leduc, after scoring two in the fourth, had to call in the cavalry (Jon Anstey) to pull out the save with hot-hitting Ian Sherbaniuk (2-for-2 on the night going into the at bat) and the bases loaded. Anstey struck out Sherbaniuk on three pitches.
Leduc let him finish the game, but Armena wasn’t getting mowed down like they did in the opening game of the season. Buzzell walked, then Kyle Ellis hit a ball up the middle that shortstop Trevor Pahl bobbled before being able to tag second just in time. Steve Thiessen would strike out and Rademacher would ground to second after a tough at bat.
The Royals fell to 1-5 on the season and now host Bardo on Tuesday before heading to Holden on Thursday. Leduc remains unbeaten. They take on Ryley and Bardo next week in rematches of last year’s playoffs.
Posted on June 3, 2010 by Jason Buzzell
