Neepawa Cubs fall in SCBL semi-final
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- Published on Saturday, July 21, 2018
By Eoin Devereux
Neepawa Banner & Press
Despite losing, the Neepawa Cubs can take some solace in knowing they pushed the Portage Padres to their absolute limit and that they’ll likely get another crack at them come the Provincials in mid-August. But until that time, it’s the Padres who have bragging rights, as well as a shot at the SCBL Championship. Portage cemented that chance at the title thanks to an 8-6 extra innings win over Neepawa on Wednesday, July 18.
The game proved to be a tremendous back-and-forth between a pair of talented rosters. After some early scoring, both pitching staff settled down in the final few innings of the game. Neepawa’s Garrett Rempel and Portage’s Dylan Donald came into the game as relief pitchers and allowed no runs over the final three innings.
The Cubs did have an incredible opportunity to win in the bottom of the seventh with a pair of runners on second and third and just one out. A line drive hit directly back to Donald, however, was able to generate a shocking double play and send the contest into extra innings.
For the SCBL, Baseball Canada would come into play. Those rules state that runners will start on first and second base and the teams will proceed as normal. The Padres were up first and managed to sacrifice their first batter to advance the runners to second and third. That was followed up with a hit that found the gap and scored a pair. Neepawa closed out the top of the inning trailing by two. In the bottom of the inning, the Cubs were unable to reply with runs and ended the night losing 8-6.
Though this ends the SCBL season for Neepawa, the Cubs will return to the diamond, as the host club of the Senior AA provincial Championships, on Aug. 10-12. Portage, meanwhile, will now move on to the league finals where they will face the winner of the Minnedosa Mavericks/Carberry Royals semi-final matchup. Carberry took the first game in that best-of-three series with a 6-4 win. Game two of that series will take place on Tuesday, July 24 in Minnedosa. Game three, if needed will be played in Carberry on July 25.
