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18U AAA Canucks post pair of comebacks before falling to Athletics

Regina scores five runs in bottom of sixth to take 13-8 win in Sask Premier Baseball League action
AAA Midget Canucks 2nd base
Current Canucks lead-off hitter Kaedyn Banilevic hauls in a ball at second base during action last season.
The Moose Jaw AAA Canucks might not have come out on the right side of their Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League 18U season opener on Wednesday night, but given the amount of heart they showed, you can already see plenty of potential.

The Canucks twice battled back from multiple-run deficits to tie the game before surrendering five runs in the bottom of the sixth and dropping a 13-8 decision to the Regina Athletics at Currie Field in Regina.

“At the end of the day we were alright, actually,” said Canucks head coach Scott Montgomery. “We’re going to be a team that’s going to compete for sure, and we even saw that last night. That A’s team, this is their year to take a run at a provincial championship, they lost in the final last year and only lost a couple players. So they’re loaded up with seniors and we battled with them.”

And how.

Kaleb Waller got the start on the mound and held the A’s scoreless through the first two innings before Regina would break through with five runs in the third, taking advantage of a pair of errors and a walk to do their damage.

Moose Jaw would get all those runs back in the top of the fifth, though, and after Regina scored three in their half of the inning would again tie things 8-8 in the top of the sixth.

“I think last year by having some of those games where we were down and chasing it was ‘oh my gawd here we go we’re down’, now it’s just ‘let’s claw and get back into this’,” Montgomery said. “We talked to the guys lots and we know that even though we’re a year more experienced, there are going to be teams that are going to score runs and we’re going to have to play our game to beat them.”

The Athletics’ final offensive outburst was a sample size of their experience -- just disciplined approaches at the plate, putting the ball in play and racking up runs with timely hits.

“It was a couple squeaker singles that got through and then a couple flare base hits that get through, then all of a sudden they hit one deep and the guys are moving,” Montgomery said. “We didn’t do too much wrong, just a couple hits and all of a sudden they’ve put up five on us.”

Now that they have their first litmus test under their belt -- and a tough one at that -- the goals for the campaign remain the same.

“For us, we’ve talked and we’re just going to keep it simple for the guys,” Montgomery said. “Our goal was to limit the mistakes that we make and make the other team beat us. We don’t want to be losing games because we made a bunch of mistakes, we know that we can compete… We said we want to be in the playoffs this year and that’s what we’re going to shoot for.”

The Canucks are back in action Sunday for their home opener with a doubleheader against the Saskatoon Giants. Game times are 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. at Ross Wells Park.

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