The Olds Athletics season came to an abrupt end on Saturday during the playoffs for the Parkland Baseball League in Red Deer, losing 16-0 to one of the best teams in the league.
Jeremy Tookey, an infielder for the A's, said the Rocky Red Dogs came out of the gate hitting well while the A's couldn't get much going against Rocky pitching, losing 16-0.
“They showed why they were the top team in the league. They hit the ball very well against us and we just couldn't do anything against (their pitching),” he said.
The A's started off the playoffs with a 7-6 win against the Carstairs Cubs earlier in the day on Saturday. Tookie said the evenly matched teams — the Cubs won the previous two meetings this year — played a back-and-forth game with the Cubs taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning, followed by two Athletic runs in the third. The Cubs then put a three-spot on the board in the fourth to take a 4-2 lead before the A's tied it in the bottom of the fourth. The Cubs then regained the lead in the fifth getting a run.
With the Cubs up one after six-and-a-half innings, the A's manufactured two runs with Ryan Barrett leading off the inning with a single. Cody Walker then bunted the ball down the third base line and was safe at first. Chris Overwater then hit a single into right field bringing home Barrett. Walker later came across the dish for the winning run.
“It was a real good game, back and forth. We finished sixth, they finished seventh. They beat us all three games this season and we ended up winning when it counted in the playoffs,” Tookey said.
Aaron Sept picked up the win on the mound, coming in to pitch the last one and one-third innings, after Mike Howden had given the A's a solid five and two-thirds.
Although the Athletics' record wasn't as good as the team would have liked (8-11), Tookey said it was a season to build on.
“I would say we had a good season. We enjoyed playing in Olds, and we're going to do it for years to come. I think we didn't quite meet our expectations going into the year but it just happened to be one of those years with all the rain we had … you can't really get off to a good start when you're always dealing with weather issues. We started the year losing our first seven games and from there basically went eight and (four). It was a good turnaround,” he said, noting that nine of the team's games featured some type of weather issue.
Tookey said many of the core group should be back next season, with the team picking up several other players who will have finished their minor ball eligibility.
“Hopefully they'll be able to fit in with us somewhere in the lineup,” he said.
Now that the league tournament has established the top two teams in the league, the Rocky Red Dogs and Innisfail Indians will square off in a best-of-three series to determine the league champion. That series is due to take place next week.
