Spurs make tourney final

Vauxhall Spurs baseball club are still looking for consistency in this American Legion ‘A’ season.

The team made it to the championship final in a tournament in Helena, Montana on the weekend, but head coach Joel Blake noted there is still plenty to work on with his Spurs’ performance.

“We got to the finals against the Laurel Dodgers. We beat them in the round-robin portion (8-3) where Thursday, Friday we played solid baseball,” said Blake. “Thursday we played the home team in Helena and Dallas McGrath threw very well, he got us into the sixth. Then we played Laurel on Friday and Laner (Jalen Lane) threw his butt off with a four or five-hitter. We played pretty good defence and swung it well those two games. We were pretty positive going into the weekend.”

Saturday is when the light switch was turned off in the Spurs’ Jekyll-and-Hyde play.

“We were panicking, we weren’t hitting. The guys were full of excuses and it was pretty tough to watch on Saturday,” said Blake.

The Spurs lost to the Lethbridge Miners 11-4 and then had their hands full in a 14-6 win over the very young Lethbridge Giants.

“That was a 14-year-old squad, and they made it a ball game for a few innings there,” said Blake, adding the Spurs were 10-runned by the Laurel Dodgers in the championship final. “It’s one of those things where right now, we are pretty weak mentally. They get a couple of runs on us and all of a sudden we are playing tight and we are panicking. It has nothing to do with our skill level or physically, it’s all between the ears. It’s something we are going to have to work on here.”

The Spurs played the Great Falls Electrics in a home doubleheader on Tuesday with results unavailable at press time. The team hosts Medicine Hat on Saturday at noon. The Spurs then travel to Fort Macleod for a doubleheader on June 24.

“These kids know we have had success in the past, and it’s the same core group of guys. They know what it takes and they know better,” said Blake. “It’s just a matter of putting it into practice.”