The Innisfail Indians were in Eckville last weekend for the Parkland Baseball League finals and their season came to a quick end.
On Friday they lost to the Acme Pirates 12-8, and then on Saturday the local squad fell 13-9 to the Red Deer Razorbacks. The Indians season was suddenly over.
“We has a really good season but unfortunately we fell short in the playoffs. We are still a pretty young team. We are still trying to find our way,” said Steve Bouteiller, the Indians' head coach and veteran first baseman and catcher.
The Indians, who have won five league titles since the PBL was established in 1994, found their roster decimated by the Western Canada Baseball Association Junior AAA Championships in Regina. Seven local players were chosen to play at the Regina tournament for the Innisfail Merchants Jr. AAA Baseball Club.
“We were not able to work with the league to move the junior tournament this year,” said Bouteiller. “The majority of our team plays on the junior team as well, and they are gone to Regina. We missed quite a few of our better players.”
The team's current trials at playoff time are nothing new. The Indians, who last won a title in 2009, were faced with the same scenario last year when they were bounced early.
“We struggled again. We finished fairly strong in the top half of the league but we lost pretty much all of our players last year to the junior westerns tournament,” said Bouteiller, whose squad reached the finals but lost in the title game in 2011.
The Indians headed into this year's PBL finals after an excellent regular season. The local senior squad finished tied for second with the Acme Pirates. Both teams had a record of 10 wins and six losses, trailing the league-leading Lacombe Dodgers that finished the season with 12 wins and three losses.
The three-day Eckville tournament began as a seven-team round robin with the top four teams advancing to the semifinals. The winners, Acme and the Irricana Canadians, are now heading into a best-of-three final. The dates have not yet been finalized
Bouteiller said the Indians felt the loss of seven players to the Merchants, notably shortstop Corbyn Shields, third baseman Jesse Scheunert and utility player Brady Porter.
“Those three players are pretty predominant hitters in the middle of our lineup that help us get a lot of runs batted in. We missed them in the tournament and we needed others to step up,” said Bouteiller.
However, on the positive side the Indians had their two top pitchers at the PBL final. Both Jay Kirkham and Kyle Burkitt were ready to play.
“We did not have them last year. We also have a couple of alumni guys coming out of retirement for one weekend to play and help us out for the weekend,” said Bouteiller. “We were still pretty competitive.”
With files from Lindsay Goss.
