By Chris Jaster
With a pair of wins in Medicine Hat on Thursday, the Maple Creek Red Sox are one victory away from being Southern Alberta High School Baseball Association’s Tier 2 champions.
The Red Sox, which were the top-seed in the Tier 2 East tournament, battled the elements, but managed to defeat Brooks 8-1 in the semifinal and Eagle Butte 15-10 in the final to earn a trip to the SAHSBA’s Tier 2 championship game.
“They were terrible conditions,” said Red Sox manager Al Fournier, who is trying to set a date for the final against Coaldale. “In the Brooks game the wind was blowing in, so it was a pitcher’s game. In the final, we played on a different field and it was totally opposite. The wind was blowing toward the outfield, which is why it turned into a slugfest and was really hard on the pitchers.”
The different conditions forced the Red Sox to take up different strategies for each game. The Red Sox worked their way around the bases with small-ball tactics to beat Brooks and they were hitting doubles to the gap to drive in runs against Eagle Butte.
Unlike their semifinal, the Red Sox found themselves in an early hole in the east final. They fell behind 8-3 after two and a half innings, but they rallied to cut the deficit down to 10-7 after four innings. Maple Creek pitcher Taylor Heck shut down Eagle Butte after that and more run support in the bottom of the fifth inning when the Red Sox exploded for seven runs.
“I think we were good because we knew we were going to get our hits,” Fournier said of his team’s attitudes while trailing early on. “We were always behind, but instead of staying four or five back we’d come within two. We were in the mix and we knew their ace was gone.”
“We were hitting. It was just a matter of once Heck settled in, once he got rolling in the last three innings he shut the door. That was the key. When you know you have the pitching and you’re getting your hits, we just rallied.”
Although Heck, who pitched the last six innings in the final, and the starting lineup deserve a lot of credit for the come-from-behind win, Fournier had much praise for the players who came off the bench. Those players, according to Fournier, had important at-bats  when they came into the game as a pinch hitter and they did their jobs as pinch runners.
“As a group they were awesome and that was the key thing,” said Fournier. “The bench support was unreal and guys coming off the bench for key hits was huge as well.”
“It’s attitude too. You have to put your ego behind and say the coach is making the call. Obviously, success takes away a little bit of that and everyone wants to contribute, but I think in their own way they all did, and some had larger roles, but the smaller roles are the difference makers.”
The Red Sox are in very good shape heading into the final. Even though the SAHSBA championship wasn’t played the same weekend as the east and west championship tournaments — it initially was but was postponed due to weather — it is all classified as one tournament, meaning the maximum innings each pitcher is allowed to throw is still enforced.
Maple Creek, however, split up their innings fairly evenly, so their ace has five and two-thirds innings he can pitch, and the other two pitchers have lots of innings left as well.
And it has the Red Sox motivated to win their first-ever league title.
“Right now, they’re not playing for second place. They’re going for it,” said Fournier.