Although they came out on the short end of the bat in their opening two games, the Lloydminster Twins made gains just the same during Week 1 action in the North Saskatchewan River Baseball League (NSRBL).
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In their home-opener May 14, the Twins rallied from an 11-0 deficit and trailed 11-9 in the fifth inning when darkness halted the game prematurely and clinched a victory for the North Battleford Beavers.
Two nights earlier on the road, Lloydminster lost 5-4 to the Unity Cardinals.
“We wanted to come away with a win in one of those two games, but it’s early season and it’s about getting reps and things like that,” said Twins playing coach Trent Kusch. “With only eight teams, everyone makes playoffs. Obviously, you want to win, but I’m not pushing at it. I’m more (concerned with) getting guys out, getting guys reps, kind of adapt to change, and then hit mid-season form when we roll into June.”
Amid those lessons, the Twins had the would-be tying run on third base against Unity, and they regrouped in a big way against a perennially strong Battleford club.
“I told them that it’s been a while since we’ve travelled to Unity and played close, competitive games,” Kusch said. “Because it’s usually tough getting boys (to make the trip) out there. We had the tying run on third in the top of the seventh.
“Even against Battleford, we usually have tough games against them. We were down big, but we fought and clawed our way back and lost by two. It sucks to lose, but those (comebacks) don’t happen in the past years. Those are positive signs that we’re a growing team.”
FACE PITCHING ACE
On a night when it appeared threatening rain might have stopped the game, that wasn’t the case, and it was darkness that ended action at the Legion field in Lloyd. The Twins described it as a moral victory.
“Unfortunately, we ran out of daylight, or (otherwise) I think we might have been able to squeak out a win in that game,” Kusch said about the two-hour contest.
The Twins had begun to solve what was left of the Beavers’ pitching. For most of the night, Lloyd struggled to muster any offence against Gavin Nolin, the league’s top pitcher last season.
“Gavin is usually one of the top players in the league,” Kusch said. “Pitching, he’s probably the best one. But even offensively, he’s grown more and more. Probably going to be the league MVP this year.”
Quincy Winkler, a veteran from Meadow Lake, started for Lloyd before giving way to Josh Davidson.
Winkler played back home in Meadow Lake before the demise of its NSRBL team two years ago. Now he’s battling an injury, but the Twins hope he regains his form this spring.
“Quincy is getting up there in age and he loves baseball, and he wants to keep playing, but sometimes your body doesn’t let you,” Kusch reported. “He hurt his calf (muscle) a little bit, but I’m hoping that, give it a month or so, he’ll be able to pitch again. But he just wants to keep working at it and trying and see what he can do.
“He’s played ball and lots of other sports a lot of his life, so it takes a little more toll on your body. We’ll see how it goes.”
Roster turnover is a way of life for intermediate and senior-calibre ball teams in the NSRBL, especially for places like Lloyd, where workers come and go depending on where their employment takes them.
Most notably, the Twins lost their team MVP from last season in hometown pitcher and top
hitter Dray Souchotte, who has signed with the senior AAA Edmonton Cubs.
“He was a big loss,” Kusch said of Souchotte. “In his line of work, his job could take him wherever.”
The Twins’ fifth-year player-coach has seen Lloyd impacted at both ends of the work spectrum, as the Twins have gained or lost players whose careers might take them to or from the Border City.
“We have a couple of new guys this year that lived in Calgary, now their work has brought them to Lloyd, so it’s kind of a mishmash,” Kusch said. “I don’t put too much stock in it. Each year, guys let me know what’s happening with work and where things are taking them, and it goes from there.”
On the incoming side, the Twins have regained the services of another hometown product in shortstop Kelton Hanley, who was Lloyd’s leadoff
hitter in the early going.
“He started off the year pretty strong with the bat,” Kusch said of Hanley, who had a couple of hits against Battleford and one versus Unity.
“He didn’t play last year because he was gone, and now he’s back playing in Lloyd.”
LLOYDMINSTER PROUD
Kusch, a 26-year-old teacher at Holy Rosary High School, recognizes a resurgence in the Twins as a youth movement has given them a boost.
“Over the last few years, it’s slowly built back up,” he said. “Knowing guys that played minor ball in Lloyd, we just reached out and got them back and are working with them.
“Our age group right now, everyone is kind of under the age of 28, except for our pitcher Quincy (Winkler).”
Kusch mentioned the likes of Brenden Pollard, Ellis King and collegiate players Konnor Hennigar and Ethan Wildeman as some of the young guns now representing the Twins at the NSRBL level.
“Brenden Pollard has been a well-known minor ball player in Lloyd,” Kusch said. “Ellis King is a Lloyd boy whose family used to play and run the Twins a while back, so it’s a kind of a legacy thing there.”
Kusch himself is also entrenched in the local baseball legacy. His father Kevin spent 10 years as the president of the Lloydminster Minor Baseball Association and received Baseball Saskatchewan’s lifetime achievement award.
Trent Kusch has been coaching since he was 17. Along with the senior Twins, he coaches Lloyd’s 13U AA Pirates. Pollard and Hennigar are part of Gage Haygarth’s coaching staff with the 15U AA Pirates.
Pollard’s teammates with the Twins include three of his cousins, Jack Bygrove, Eric Noble and Brayden Rekimowich.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
The youthful Oil City Ducks of Lloydminster are playing their second NSRBL season. They were 1-1 in the opening week, defeating the host Mervin Flyers 12-2 on May 15, two nights after falling 14-4 to the visiting Standard Hill Lakers.
The NSRBL’s eight-team complement is one less than last year, as Wlikie has dropped out of the league. Along with the two Lloyd teams, the other clubs are North Battleford, Unity, Mervin, Standard Hill and the Glaslyn Orioles and Lashburn Cardinals.
The Twins and Ducks face each other in an all-Lloyd matchup at
6:30 p.m. next Wednesday (May 28).
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