Jets play first home games of spring schedule

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Taber Times

By Cole Parkinson
Taber Times

It was a busy weekend out at Jets Stadium this past weekend. After plenty of road games the past few weeks, the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball Jets were back home this past weekend. Saturday and Sunday saw the Jets take on the Calgary Blues and Sylvan Lake 19U Gulls Prep squad.

“Friday was our first practice that we had on our full field — meaning the infield and everything else. That was nice and it was a beautiful weekend. There was quite a bit of traffic and a lot of people at the games,” said Les McTavish, head coach of the Jets. “It was a good weekend overall — we could have played better at times but we played really well at times. It was just great to get back out on Jets Stadium, for sure.”

First up on Saturday was a matchup against the Blues that saw the Jets run away with a 9-1 win. VAB collected 10 hits as Alex Laurence led the way with three, including a double. Easton Kitura had two, including a double while Callum Thomson, Aaron Fuzesy, Noah McIntosh, Rogan Rivard, and Kaz Harris all contributed with a hit in the win. Hudson Kozicki collected the win on the mound with four innings, six punch outs, three walks, two hits, and one earned run. Charlie McMillan went the final three innings with four strikeouts and allowing one walk.

“First game, we started with a 9-1 victory over the Calgary Premier Blues. We played well and we pitched it well that game. Kozicki started and then Charlie McMillan came in and both pitched the ball really well,” explained McTavish. 

“We were slow offensively that game, you know, it took us a little bit. It was a 2-1 game going to the bottom of the third, but we just kept plugging away and eventually won by a score of 9-1. The top of our lineup had a good day. Our top three hitters in our lineup had six hits and usually, that’s a recipe for success. It was a good baseball game.”

The second game of the day against the Gulls saw the Jets once again take an early lead as they took it 6-1. The Jets had another seven hits in the game as Thomson had three of them, including a double. Kitura, Fuzesy, McIntosh, and Langdyn Cummins all had one hit. Sheamus Ryan was the starting pitcher and had five strikeouts in five innings while allowing three hits, no walks, and one earned run. Kaleb Bozek went two innings and struck out a pair of Gulls to round out the game.

“We played a really good new program called the 19U Sylvan Lake Gulls Prep. They’re a little bit older of a group, but it was a good baseball game. We pitched Sheamus Ryan and he had an outstanding five innings. We finished it up with good pitching coming out of the bullpen and it was really good,” continued McTavish. “We had some timely hits and they threw a really good arm at us. He struggled with the strike zone and that kind of gave us a lead and then Callum Thomson had a really big game. He went 3-3 with a double and certainly led our offence.”

Sunday saw the Jets and Gulls return to action to start the day. The Jets would take a 3-0 lead in the first but both teams would score plenty of runs over seven innings. Thanks to a three-run seventh, the Gulls won the rematch 10-9. Once again, the Jets hit the ball all over the yard as they had 10 hits from eight different players. Thomson and Ben Simmons had a pair of hits while Laurence had a home run, and Kitura Fuzesy, Cummins, McIntosh, and Harris had one each. Calum Andersen got the ball to start and went three innings with four strikeouts while allowing three walks, five hits, and four earned runs. Kaden Coldwell was the first man out of the bullpen and went three innings with six hits allowed, three earned runs, and punching out two Gulls. Cedric LeBlanc went two-thirds of an inning with three hits, two earned runs, a pair of walks, and striking out one. Graham Thiessen finished things off with one strikeout in his one-third inning of work.

“It was kind of a back-and-forth ballgame,” explained McTavish. “It was kind of a seesaw and then we ended up losing 10-9, but we had the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh down 10-9. We hit a line shot to centre field (for an out) and we can’t certainly can’t complain about that. We didn’t pitch it quite as well in that game — we walked a few guys and to their credit, they swung the bats pretty well off us. We had a couple of guys have a big day,  Alex Laurence had a big game. He had a home run and Thomson and Simmons both had another big day.”

Sunday’s final game saw the Jets rematch against the Blues. The bats continued to lead the way as the Jets won 14-2. Pitching-wise, the Jets sent two pitchers to the mound with Aiden Sloan getting the start. The right-hander went three innings and only surrendered one hit while striking out a pair and allowing three walks. Carter Bevans finished the final two innings with five Ks, two walks, and one earned run on one hit. The lineup continued to mash as Jaxon George, Matt Getz, and McIntosh all had a home run. George and McIntosh had two hits apiece while Rivard, Kitura, Cummins, Getz, and Thiessen all had one.

“We just came out of the gates well and kind of cruised.  We had three home runs in the game — all grade elevens, which was kind of nice. It was a beautiful weekend, you know, you couldn’t ask for a better weekend of baseball. There was virtually no wind and you’re playing in 15 to 20 degrees with a good crowd, so it was really nice to be at home,” said McTavish.

With the first games at Jets Stadium, everyone was happy with how the field held up. Thanks to the warmer weather, the frost came out and after some hard work getting it in shape for games, the reviews were positive.

“It actually played really well. It was still a little damp on Saturday, but by Sunday it was in great shape. We’re at the point where we’re gonna need to get some water on it because it dried out pretty quickly. The guys put a ton of effort and time into it and I’m proud of how hard they worked to get the field in good conditions,” added McTavish.

With pitchers now getting into the groove of the spring, the Jets are figuring out their rotation and bullpen arms. While some teams may have their four or five set starters, the Jets like to use their pitchers in different spots.

“We have ten main pitchers and I believe eight out of the ten have started a game this year. I try to give different guys opportunities to start and maybe I have a little different philosophy compared to a lot of teams. They will just say ‘Hey, I want to run my four best pitchers as my starting pitchers’ — we have belief in all ten of our arms,” explained McTavish. “I’m a huge believer that you need to be really good coming out of the bullpen. It’s great to have a good three or four innings guy, but you need to have some bullets coming out of the bullpen and you need to have different looks coming out of the bullpen. You need to have a left-hander, a right-hander, you need to have somebody with a slider, and you need to have somebody that holds runners.”

The main thing they look for though is guys who come out of the pen throwing strikes. On top of that, they like to see quick at-bats more often than not.

“The most important thing about being a bullpen guy is you need to come in the game throwing strikes because usually, they come in the game with traffic on the bases. You need to be able to throw strikes and hopefully have two pitches for a strike and ideally three. We’re still going to run out some of our best guys as starters but we’re going to have guys that throw more than one pitch for a strike and eat up pitch counts,” continued McTavish. “Our philosophy as a group is trying to get outs in three pitches or less for each hitter. Now, does that always happen? Certainly not, but that’s your goal.”

Another key component is the defence. While it has been up and down so far this season, the team believes in their defence and being able to help their pitchers get out of tough jams.

“We have a good defence and usually good things happen. It’s when you start falling behind and pitching behind and then your pitch count climbs and the advantage goes to the offence. The more pitches they see, the more comfortable they’re gonna be. It’s kind of a combination, you know, it’s always a work in progress. They are in high school and the majority of our guys will be starters when they go home to their summer teams. You try to give everybody different opportunities, but we have two or three guys that are our starters,” stated McTavish. “That’s where they pitch best. Could they do well out of the bullpen? Absolutely, but, Sheamus Ryan for instance, is arguably our best guy and he’s pitched on the national team. He’s got a starter makeup, he handles himself well as a starter, and he’ll probably start a lot of our big games this spring.”

The Jets now prepare for a home-and-home with the Okotoks Dawgs this weekend. April 12 sees VAB in Okotoks while the Dawgs come to Vauxhall on Sunday with the first pitch at noon.

“Hopefully the weather holds this week because we got a big series with Okotoks,” added McTavish. We’re going to kind of play it by ear as far as how we’re gonna tackle this weekend because the forecast doesn’t look great. We might move a few things around to try to make sure we get the games in, so that will probably be a today or tomorrow decision.”

To keep up to date on the Jets schedule, follow them on Twitter @vabjets