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Terrific turnaround: 18U Canucks win three of four after seven straight losses

Moose Jaw sweeps doubleheader with Parkland, split twinbill with SouthEast
Midget AAA Canucks O'Reilly pitch
Cam O’Reilly delivers for the Canucks earlier this season.

If the Toronto Blue Jays played the Washington Nationals almost exclusively for the first half of the season, you can bet they would have a less than stellar record.

Substitute the first-year Moose Jaw Canucks and the defending Saskatchewan Premier Baseball League and provincial champion Regina White Sox, and you get the same idea.

Taking to diamond this weekend without a win to their credit, the Canucks had a chance to play a pair of teams other than the White Sox and fellow powerhouse Swift Current 57’s, and lo and behold, they came away cured.

The Canucks picked up their first win of the season in a 10-0 romp over the Parkland Expos and followed with a 2-1 win in a doubleheader at Ross Wells Park on Saturday before falling 2-1 to the South East Twins and winning 5-3 in a twinbill Monday in Estevan.

The Canucks are now 3-8 on the season and are back on the field this Sunday when they face the 57’s in a doubleheader in Swift Current.

Canucks 10, Expos 0

Dylan Reed shut out the Expos for five innings, and that proved to be more than enough as the Canucks rolled to a mercy-rule victory.

Reed scattered six hits and needed only 56 pitches to pick up the win, striking out a pair.

It didn’t take long for Moose Jaw to get on the board, either, as they scored three runs in the first inning and held 3-0 edge until the fifth. There, they’d send 11 batters to the plate, scoring seven runs to invoke the 10-up-after-five mercy rule.

Reed also had a solid day at the plate, going 3-for-3 and scoring a pair of runs, while Nathan Varjassy was 2-for-3 with a run and two runs batted in. Evan Callaghan was 2-for-4 and scored twice, while Kaleb Waller also had two runs scored.

Canucks 2, Expos 1

Varjassy turned in a quality start to pick up the win in game two, giving up a single run on five hits while striking out seven. He also had only one walk, which had been an issue for the pitching staff in their previous losses.

Waller and Reed hit back-to-back singles in the first to bring home Waller with the first run of the game. After Parkland tied things up in the top of the fifth, the Canucks would see Callaghan single home Cole Breitkreuz with the eventual game-winning run in their half of the inning.

Twins 2, Canucks 1

The Canucks didn’t manage a hit in their first game against South East, as the Twins’ Kaiden Lyons gave up a single unearned run in the close contest.

Varjassy scored the lone run for Moose Jaw in the second, drawing a walk, stealing second and scoring when Orin Olson reached on an error to the shortstop.

Kyle Duncan got the start for the Canucks and went five innings, allowing one run on three hits and striking out six. Anderson and Kaleb Waller saw action in relief.

Canucks 5, Twins 3

The Canucks wasted little time getting things going in the rematch, scoring a pair of runs in the first and three more in the second before riding a solid start from Cam O’Reilly to their third win of the weekend.

O’Reilly tossed their second quality start, giving up three runs on five hits over six innings, striking out eight and allowing only one walk. Waller threw the seventh, surrendering a hit and striking out one.

Varjassy had a single hit in the game but knocked in a pair, while eight of the Canucks’ nine starters had a hit in the contest.

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