It was a breakthrough weekend for the Lloydminster 18U AA Prairie Pirates as they not only swept three home games but also showed their ability to overcome challenges inherent with baseball at all levels.
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Those lessons are of upmost importance for the young and developing Pirates, who have kept local 18U baseball afloat this summer in the absence of AAA representation from the Border City.
“This weekend, they really came together and gelled as a group,” head coach Brad Nixon said of his Pirates.
“We try to simulate those tough-game situations, apply pressure and support them to make good decisions to rise to the pressure and the challenge. Nothing beats game experience.
“We’re really happy with the way they all came together and showed leadership and supported each other through the weekend. It resulted in three wins.”
As the first round of Baseball Alberta tiering play came to an end, Lloydminster hosted three other teams for two days of provincial league action at Wallace Park.
The Pirates made the most of a rare chance to play at home. They scored a dramatic 9-8 comeback victory over the Edmonton Angels on Saturday and added two more victories Sunday — 16-1 over the Whitecourt Royals and 10-5 over the Parkland Twins.
Lloydminster improved its Division 2 record to an even 6-6 on the season.
‘NEW CHALLENGES TO FACE’
“This will help establish where we’re going to sit for provincials and the championship,” Nixon said. “After this weekend, we should go into (the next round of) tiering and we’ll have a whole new look for July. We’ll be playing a bunch of new teams, with new challenges to face.”
Considering the youthfulness and relative inexperience of the Pirates, they weathered more than rain delays on the weekend. Nixon and his three assistant coaches are preaching that every strikeout and every error, as frustrating as they can be at the time, can still translate into a learning experience.
“In AA baseball — any baseball — it’s tough to know what to expect,” he said. “A day at the ballpark can go in any direction.
“We took a group of guys at the beginning of the year — some of them have played together before and I’ve coached before, and some of them are new to us. A lot of first-year 18U players moved up from 15U AA, and even one that hasn’t played AA before. So, we’ve got a diverse group of experience.
“They showed a lot of growth in skill and mental toughness. Baseball is a game of failure. You look at the best players in the major leagues and, at the plate, they fail more often than not. That’s a tough lesson to learn for kids, anybody, and that’s kind of what baseball is all about. It teaches you how to be successful in life, really.”
The mere formation of these Pirates is a success story. The AA team picked up the pieces after Lloyd’s 18U AAA program folded and some of the top players from the area went elsewhere to play at higher levels.
“Yeah, there were some challenges,” Nixon said. “We went with the guys that came out, really. This year being the building year that it is, everybody that raised their hand to play AA 18U got to play AA 18U. We have 14 players on our team.”
One of those is overager Keenan Chappell, who looked the part all weekend as he contributed clutch performances as a pitcher and as a hitter. He’s the only Pirate not eligible to return next season.
FAMILY AT THE PLATE
Third-year man Callum Molsberry might stick around as an overager next year, Nixon said. “He’s enjoying it.”
Molsberry’s younger brother Thad also plays with the Pirates. The Vermilion duo manned the middle infield Sunday.
“This year was their first opportunity to ever play together on the same team, because of their age gap,” Nixon said. “Every other division is a two-year gap, but 18U is a three-year gap.”
It’s a family atmosphere around the Pirates, as all four coaches have sons on the team. Nixon’s son Ryden, a catcher and pitcher who turns 16 in August, is in his first year at the 18U level.
The assistant coaches are Blair Molsberry (father of Callum and Thad), Jeff Kenyon (father of Matthew) and Ryan Early (father of Bryson).
The Pirates’ off-field manager is Linsey Early, mother of Ryden Nixon and Keenan Chappell.
The Pirates’ roster is primarily made up of Lloydminster players, along with the Molsberry brothers of Vermilion, Bryson Early of Marshall and Kaleb Hozack and Brayden Schiller of Kitscoty.
As evidenced during last weekend’s home games, it’s a team approach for coach Nixon and his assistants. For the most part, they’ve been coaching together for years.
“It’s very much a collaborative coaching effort,” Nixon agreed.
“That’s kind of how my philosophy has been all the way along, is that each and every one of us needs to be empowered and capable of making the decisions. Any one of us could be gone one day and somebody would have to step in. For the team to be able to carry on in those possible absences, we’ve got to know what’s up.”
Up next for the Pirates is a weekend off. An exhibition doubleheader planned for Unity has been cancelled.
While they’re working on other possible exhibition dates, the Pirates expect to be back in provincial league action on the July 5 and July 12 weekends.
PIRATES 9 EDMONTON 8: Lloydminster scored five runs on three hits in the bottom of the seventh inning to walk off with the victory. Chappell ended the game when the second of his two hits drove in two runs. Lucas Conly also delivered a key shot during that late-game rally. Kenyon earlier stroked a two-run single.
Chappell earned the pitching win in relief of Conly. Pirates’ starter Thad Molsberry worked six-plus innings, giving up four runs on four hits while striking out nine and walking four.
PIRATES 16 WHITECOURT 1 (five innings): The Pirates ousted the Royals via the mercy rule. Lloyd led 12-0 after amassing eight runs on seven hits in the top of the second inning.
Winning pitcher Keenan Rohs recorded 10 strikeouts while allowing just two hits and one run. Rohs, Conly, Kenyon, Kole Heck and Thad Molsberry each posted two hits. Thad, with a triple, and brother Callum each knocked in two runs.
PIRATES 10 PARKLAND 5: The Pirates’ six-run sixth inning broke open a 4-4 game. Chappell continued his mastery on the mound and at the plate. He came within one batter of pitching a complete game, and he drove in five runs on three hits, including a three-run triple in the third. He struck out eight Twins before hitting the 100-pitch mark.
Kenyon, with a two-run double, and Thad Molsberry each clubbed two hits.
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