Neepawa Cubs heading into playoffs on a roll
- Details
- Published on Monday, July 11, 2016
By Eoin Devereux
The Neepawa Press/Neepawa Banner
The Neepawa Cubs have closed out the Santa Clara Baseball League’s regular season with a pair of important wins. The club returned home for a showdown with the Dauphin Brewers on Tuesday, July 6. This was the first home game for Neepawa since June 10, as the team’s last five games were all on the road.
Neepawa got off to a slow start, falling behind early, by the score of 1-0. Early in the contest, the Cubs were able to get players on base, but couldn’t turn those runners into runs, stranding three to end the second inning.
In the top of the third, Dauphin expanded on its advantage, scoring three runs to secure the 4-0 lead. That cushion was short lived, however, as in the bottom of the third, the Cubs were finally able to turn their efforts into runs, taking advantage of a tiring Brewer’s pitching staff. After loading the bases, Jonah Freeman was able to drive in a pair to cut the lead in half at 4-2. Dauphin was able to escape the inning without further damage, though and clung to its lead shifting into the fourth inning.
After Neepawa was able to hold its opposition to a quick three up, three down, the Cubs returned to bat and blew the game wide open, with a 12 run onslaught in the bottom of the fourth. With the bases loaded for Neepawa and only one out. After a pair of walks, the Dauphin pitcher was thrown out of the game for arguing the strike zone. The new pitcher for the Brewers ran into trouble quickly, walking five straight batters and hitting one with a pitch. The extended inning continued as Cam Tibett drove in three runs with a double, making it 12-4. Ian Kerkowich followed that up with a single to bring Tibbett in from second. After a Mark Kerkowich walk, Shane Levendosky singled and then advanced to second on a play which included a force out at second and a throwing error. Dauphin was finally able to secure the third out of the inning to limp out of the bottom of the fourth surrendering 12 runs on four hits and giving up one error to make it 14-4 for Neepawa after four innings.
Dauphin answered back with three runs in the fifth, but still found itself trailing by a wide margin. The Cubs, earned back those runs, plus two more in the bottom of the fifth, cruising to a 19-7 victory. The win improved Neepawa’s record to 6-7 on the season, with one make up game set for Wednesday, July 7 versus the Carberry Royals. The Cubs were able to top the Royals 6-4 and closed out the regular season with a 7-7 record, good enough for fourth place in the standings. The Minnedosa Mavericks closed the season in top spot with a record of 11-1-2. Portage was a half game back in the standings (10-1-3), while Plumas was third (8-5-1).
The Cubs now begin the playoffs against the fifth place Ebb and Flow Lakers (6-8). The first game of the best-of-three series will start on Tuesday, July 12 in Neepawa.
